


Sizzling Chicago

by District447



Category: Chicago Fire, Chicago PD (TV), NCIS
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-03-01
Updated: 2019-03-19
Packaged: 2019-03-25 14:24:43
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 25
Words: 51,895
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13836633
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/District447/pseuds/District447
Summary: NCIS Agent Sarah Watson gets thrown to Chicago because of a triple arson case, following a lead in Washtington D.C. Sarah has been working on 3 different cases where Navy officers has been trapped in their own homes which were set on fire and they were burned alive. NCIS has received a list of possible targets and an important officer on that list takes a work trip to Chicago. Watson follows her as part of her security detail but she ends up working with CFD's finest. Lieutenant Kelly Severide helps her with the arson investigation and it'll be up to Firehouse 51 to save Watson when the arsonist learns her name and decides to take out not only the officer they were targeting at first but Watson as well.Meet the cast at: district447.tumblr.com/sizzlingchicago-cast





	1. A Pop and a Bang

 

Her name was NCIS Special Agent Sarah Watson, she was 29 and she currently worked in the Washington D.C. field office under NCIS Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs. Her boss was not exactly the friendly type but he was the best in this job, so she was here to learn as much as possible from him. Watson came here 5 years ago, in 2013, from New Orleans, to study one of the most successful NCIS teams in service and she ended up staying and working for them. For the past couple of months, she had been working on three cases that all linked up. All of them were arson cases involving the deaths of Navy Officers in Virginia. Watson caught all three cases coming in in three different months. At first, nobody did the math. Why would they? The cases came from all over the state, the officers’ ranks did not match and there as always something different about the fires. Then as the cases started to go cold, fueled by a crazy idea, one night she sat down and went through all three of them again. Five coffees and seven hours later Watson finally noticed the small links that all lined up.

Nobody knew who the arsonist was, NCIS got every help and manpower from the Fire Department as they could, but to no avail. The cases went cold. Until last week when the office got an untraceable letter. Forensics carefully examined every nick of it, but there was zero evidence left on it. They did not know who sent it, the postal stamp was too damaged and there were no fingerprints or DNA left behind. The letter contained a list of names, all of them Navy Officers in high, mostly senior ranks and the title said:

_Twenty officers, sizzling in a pan; three went pop and another will go bang_

“This is a sick version of an adorable nursery rhyme.” McGee huffed. NCIS Special Agent Timothy McGee was the senior agent in the team when Gibbs wasn’t around and also the office’s resident IT genius.

“Let’s cross-reference that list with upcoming trips and events to arrange a security detail.” Watson suggested as she started running the first few names on the list on her computer. 19 officers were staying put for the next two months. But one had an event planned coming up soon.

“I got it!” McGee brought the picture on the screen.

“Rear Admiral Samantha Collins?” Sarah read her name, it sounded familiar to her but she couldn’t place it at the moment.

“Yep, she is going to Chicago to attend the DVOB gala.” NCIS Special Agent Eleanor ‘Ellie’ Bishop pulled up the pamphlet for the event on the screen, next to the rear admiral’s picture. “January 19th, Domestic Violence Outreach Benefit Gala”

“As a precaution, she always travels 3 days early to any target site and gets home 3 days later so there are no surprises for her anywhere.” McGee added.

“Great! That’s a week from now, so we have time to notify her!” Watson smiled and started calling her office line, which went unanswered for quite a couple of rings.

“Look alive! Incoming!” NCIS Special Agent Nick Torres ducked behind his computer screen, typing away at his keyboard. This meant, their boss was about to enter and ask for any news. They were getting ready to present their findings when Gibbs stopped in the middle of their office space in the bullpen and motioned behind him.

“Rear Admiral Samantha Collins.” that’s all he said and they all looked up at her in surprise.

“Look, I know you are about to assign me a security detail, I heard about the letter. So if it wouldn’t be much of a trouble, I’d like to take Special Agent Sarah Watson with me to Chicago.”

Watson just stood there, staring at her, in need of a wake-up call, hoping this was all a bad joke. _Washington was bad in January, but have you seen the freezing hellhole that is Chicago this time?_ – she thought.

“You’ve been working on the three previous arson cases, am I right?” Collins asked.

“Yea… Yes, Admiral.” she barely managed to get the words out.

“I assume you are okay with this, Gibbs?” Collins turned to their boss who was busy with something on his desk, probably trying his best to avoid this decision.

“I am, as long as someone else backs her.” Gibbs looked up, dead serious “Torres can go with her.”

“No!” Collins raised her voice “She is all I need. The fewer people the less attention I can draw. If we run into trouble, we’ll work it out with CPD.”

“CPD?” McGee asked “You mean, you’ll turn to the local cops instead of bringing in another talented NCIS Agent?”

“McGee.” Gibbs’ voice had a tone of warning and McGee just sat back down to his desk and typed away.

“As I said, the fewer people on my detail, the less attention I can draw.” Collins stated, more calmly then before.

“I can do it, Gibbs.” Watson nodded “When do we leave?”

“Tomorrow.” Collins smiled and Sarah’s jaw dropped.

“But the event is a week from now.” Watson was beginning to feel sorry she ever agreed to do this job.

“Yes, but I also have a small conference that has a seat reserved for me. So, Agent Watson, we are leaving tomorrow.”

“I’ll arrange a secure flight.” McGee said and started to call the airfield.

“As soon as possible, Agent McGee.” Collins nodded then said goodbye and left. Gibbs sent Watson home to pack. She took the three arson casefiles with her and on the way home she wondered what fresh hell was awaiting for her in Chicago.

The next day, by 10 am, they were halfway to Chicago on a secure private jet. Apart from Watson and Rear Admiral Collins, they had four plain clothes Navy MAs on the plane, otherwise known as master-at-arms, who were responsible for law enforcement and force protection in the United States Navy - equivalent to the United States Army Military Police. From what Watson was told, she wouldn’t be living on site, the four Navy MAs would be the real security detail for the Rear Admiral and Watson would be the look out, still working the case for every angle. NCIS arranged Watson a sit down with one the best arson investigators in Chicago so she could run the case by him. _Maybe he could catch something I missed_ – Watson wondered. Although, it was weird that he was not working in the OFI – office of fire investigation – but in a firehouse as a firefighter. As soon as the plane lands and they square away the Rear Admiral, Watson had to pay him a visit to get a jump start on the case. Although Sarah wasn’t fully responsible for Rear Admiral Collins, it was her job to catch the nutjob who had been setting their officers on fire before he or she could get to Collins.

 

**_to be continued_ **

 


	2. The Meeting

A bit after 11 am the plane touched down at DuPage Airport in Chicago, which serves as a reliever airport for O'Hare International Airport and Chicago Midway International Airport.

“I thought we were landing at O’Hare.” Watson looked up as the plane halted to a stop.

“That was the original plan, we had to abort mid-flight. Suspicious package on site.” Jackson, one of the MAs, noted.

She just nodded silently as she climbed out of the plane, down the stairs and drew in a quick breath. Her airway almost froze. The runway was cleared, but wherever she looked everything was white, the snow was still falling, not as heavily as she has read in the news last night and it was freezing cold! January 13th in Chicago. However nice it looked it was -10° outside and all Watson wanted was a cup of searing hot coffee and a warm room to stay in.

The team took their bags and rolled towards the exit. Four plain clothes Navy MAs, a Rear Admiral in a coat big enough to hide her uniform and NCIS Agent Watson with a gun tucked away on her belt, hoping that she will have no use for it and everything will play out nicely. Of course, luck, was rarely on her side these days…

Collins and her security detail was set up in two adjacent rooms in The Ritz-Carlton. Watson was also hoping for a nice room at the Ritz, but that’s when the call came in from McGee.

“Hey Sarah, I see the Eagle has landed.”

“Yeah, sure, whatever McGee. We got her and her detail secured. Now, where am I going to be staying for the week? Please tell me you got me a room at the Ritz!” Sarah smiled as she looked around in the gorgeous lobby.

“Nope, sorry. But, you got a whole house to yourself.” _No luck, again._

“What?! What do I need a whole house for?” Watson stepped outside with her luggage, the snow falling more heavily than when they arrived and she felt like the cold has gotten worse too. Taxis lined up in front of the hotel

“You know what, McGee? Just tell me the address. I’m gonna hop into a taxi and get settled so I can start working.”

“The address is 1221 W Grenshaw St…” Watson quickly hopped into a taxi, told the driver the address then put the phone back to her ear.

“Continue, McGee. Tell me everything I need to know.” she settled into the back, the warm air in the taxi heating up her freezing body. She prepared for the cold but it was still taking some getting used to.

“You are holed up in the house alone, it’s an Airbnb, rented under an alias, Jennifer Jameson. According to your profile, you are an up-and-coming news reporter out of Miami covering the Gala and you came a week earlier to get the hang of the city.”

“Sounds nice.” Watson nodded, mainly to herself, as she watched the buildings blur by.

“Bishop has set up a meeting for you at Firehouse 51, I’ll send you the address in a text but it’s not far from your place. You’ll meet Chief Boden there and he’ll introduce you to Lieutenant Severide, who’ll be your help with the case.”

“He is the expert?”

“Yes, the best, from what I could gather.”

“Great, text me the address. I’ll unpack then head down there. Thanks, McGee.”

The drive was 20 minutes from the hotel. Watson thought it was a bit too far away, but she was not about to start arguing with command; she was mainly here to catch the arsonist. If this is where they said she’s staying, then this is it. Watson paid the fare then walked up towards 1221. The house was a beautiful 3 story building, it was modern and it was fully furnished. _Great, the place is at least not a dump! –_ she thought.

She brought her luggage to the bedroom, took out the files and went back down. Her phone chimed, signaling a text from McGee with the address: 1360 S Blue Island Ave. She made a cup of tea and sat down to read through her findings once more. It was lunch time at the firehouse if they weren’t out on a call, so she thought it was best to wait a bit longer. Watson looked up directions on her phone and it really was a walking distance. So at quarter to 1pm she gathered her stuff, pulled another NCIS sweatshirt on underneath her coat and left the house. The walk took 10 minutes. The huge doors which allowed the truck to come and go were closed, only the main door was open so she went in. Nobody was near the trucks, which sat there silently, waiting for their next run. Watson went in another door, which lead to a yellow hallway. Everyone was in the room in front of her, eating their lunches like starving people. They all knew that a call could come in any minute and a freshly cooked meal always beats a microwaved one. She was about to walk in and ask for directions to the Chief’s office when a young blonde woman almost ran into her.

“Ooh, sorry.” she smiled “Can I help you?”

“Uhm, yes, hi. I’m Special Agent Watson and I’m looking for Chief Boden.” Watson returned the smile although her face was still half frozen from the short walk.

“Sure, he’s in his office, I’ll take you right to him.” she motioned down the hallway “I’m Brett, by the way, Sylvie Brett.”

“Nice to meet you.” Watson shook her extended hand.

“Sooo… why are you looking for the Chief?” quizzed Brett.

“I can’t really talk about ongoing cases.” Sarah shook her head with an apologetical smile.

“But can you at least tell me which agency you are from?” she continued down another hallway nearing the offices.

“NCIS.”

“NCIS?” she looked at Watson, puzzled.

“Naval Criminal Investigative Service. And before your next question, I’m from the Washington DC Major Case Response Team.” Sarah added the extra info as she could see Brett was not about to back down with the questions. Watson looked at her jacket as they turned into the bullpen, she was a paramedic. She stopped at the front door.

“The first one is the Chief’s office, just tell Connie who you are on the way in. It was nice to meet you.” she smiled and walked back to where they came from.

As Watson entered she was instantly met with the quizzical look of a secretary, a 30 something African-American woman with bright hair whom she could only assume was Connie.

“Can I help you?” she asked and Watson instantly wished she had a concrete time set up with the Chief instead of just barging in on one day.

“I’m Special Agent Sarah Watson, NCIS. I’m here to see Chief Boden, I believe my colleague Agent Bishop called about it.”

“Yes, Agent Watson. Come on in, the Chief is free. Just go in.” she motioned towards the first door which read CHIEF WALLACE BODEN. Watson thanked her and after knocking two times she opened the door.

“Can I help you?” She was getting tired of that question.

“Hi, Chief Boden, I’m NCIS Special Agent Sarah Watson and I’m here to meet with one of your expert arson investigators. I believe his name was Lieutenant…” she fumbled with her notes to find his name.

“Severide. You’re looking for Lieutenant Severide.” Boden smiled. He motioned for Sarah to sit down and she did, but sat in one of the chairs in front of his desk in a way that she could still see the door. _Always have an eye on the exit_. He pushed a button and called out:

“Connie, would you please send in Severide?”

“Yes, Chief.” Connie’s voice rang out and Sarah saw the lady stand up from her desk and walk out the hallway, presumably to find this big shot Severide.

“So, Agent Watson, what brought you from Washington D.C. all the way to Chicago?” Boden smiled, genuinely interested.

“I can’t disclose the full nature of my presence here, but partly I’m here to get some help with a triple arson case. I was told this Lieutenant Severide of yours is an expert in that field and since I’m in Chicago on other business NCIS figured it was worth a try to have him look into the cases.” Sarah tried to summarize without giving away too much detail. She knew that gossip travelled faster in any government agency or department than in social media so she had to be a bit vague as to why she really was in Chicago. Watson couldn’t let it slip that a Rear Admiral was here, not when she was a possible target of an arsonist – at least not until it was utterly necessary.

“He is really one of the best we’ve got. He often lends a hand to OFI in investigations.” his gaze moved to the door, Watson assumed this meant the arrival of the Lieutenant. After two knocks the door opened up and a tall, muscular thirty something guy stepped in, his hair showing quite a few grey strands brandishing a smile from ear to ear.

“Hey Chief, you wanted to see me?” his deep, husky voice made Sarah look up from her papers for a longer time, taking him in. He had blue jeans on, with a black CFD logoed T-shirt and a blue jacket that said SQUAD on the back and had the CFD logo and Lieutenant embroidered at the front.

“Yes, Lieutenant. Thanks for coming. There’s someone here to see you.” Boden motioned to Sarah and the guy’s gaze followed landing at her. His blue eyes so piercing Watson had to look away for a moment “This here is Special Agent Sarah Watson.”

The blue eyes moved closer as she stood up and he extended his hand – she shook it.

“Lieutenant Kelly Severide. Pleasure to meet you. How can I help?” there was that question again, in slightly other words.

“I’m with NCIS…” Watson started but his furrowed brow indicated she needed to elaborate on that “Naval Criminal Investigative Service. I’m from the Washington DC Major Case Response Team.”

“Washington DC? Wow, you are far away from home.” he smiled, sitting down into the chair besides hers.

“I can’t disclose the full nature of my presence here, but as I already told Chief Boden, partly I’m here to get some help with a triple arson case. I was told this you are an expert in that field and since I’m in Chicago, I figured it was worth a try to have you look into the cases.”

“Oh, so I’m a known arson expert in DC?” he smiled cockily looking at his chief then at Sarah.

“Are you up for the job or should I…” she couldn’t finish.

“Yeah, sure. Come with me, we’ll find a quiet place and go over the details.” he smiled, his blue eyes piercing deep into Sarah’s chocolate browns as he stood up. _Shoot, I’m no good around blue eyes_ – she thought. Watson looked at Boden who just nodded so she followed Severide out the door.

**_to be continued_ **


	3. Officer Quarters

Watson followed Severide closely, afraid of getting lost in the maze that Firehouse 51 seemed to her. They walked past where Sarah entered, towards a door which read QUARTERS. Severide led her through a bunch of bunks, now empty, but she could imagine them at night: full of tired firefighters, trying to catch some sleep before their next call. When she had to pull a 24-hour shift, her go-to was an insane amount of caffeine. Not something she was proud of, but that was her way of coping. At the end of the bunks were two separate, but small offices. The first they walked by read:

CAPTAIN MATT CASEY

OFFICER QUARTERS

The next one looked exactly the same except with Kelly’s name on the door. He opened the door and motioned for her to get inside. With a slight smile she walked past him and stopped in her tracks as she took in how really small that office was. A bed, a night table in one end and a desk and a chair at the door’s end.

“You can sit on the bed.” Severide smiled as he stepped in and closed the door behind him, then sat in his chair “So, what is this case you need my expert opinion on?” emphasis on the word expert.

Watson pulled out the 3 folders from her bag and handed the first one over to him.

“I caught the first case back in October 2017. The victim was Lieutenant James Prong, a junior officer. His house burned down in Annapolis, MD and his body was found in his bedroom. Autopsy indicated he was alive when the fire caught up to him, but he died of smoke inhalation.”

“Since you said this was arson, I assume OFI found something, right?” Severide was laying out the crime scene and OFI investigation pictures onto his desk.

“Well, yes and no.” he looked at her with a puzzled smile “Accelerant was definitely used, but nothing complicated. Simple chemicals that can be found in any household were set on fire.” Watson almost knew every detail by heart, but she couldn’t wrap her head around those long names they used for the chemicals in the lab report.

“But there is a definitive char line in almost every room.” Severide flipped through the pictures, his brows furrowed.

“Yes, that’s why we could investigate further, because it classified the case as arson.” Watson nodded but Kelly was deeply focused on the pictures “Point of origin was…”

“The kitchen.” he showed up the matching picture “And it was rather a pool of origin, see?” he said as he leaned closer to Sarah to show it on the picture. She was trying to stay focused but he had a fragrance on him that was driving her senses crazy. She gazed at him, waiting for a more detailed answer. She was a special agent and not an expert fire investigator.

“Okay,” he smiled at her, blue eyes piercing into her “see that U-shape on the backdoor?” she silently nodded and it took all of her effort to refocus on the picture “Usually, this would be a V-shape, but this one means there was a pool of origin, say, a puddle of accelerant.”

“The lab report said the accelerant was a mix of common, but flammable household items, specifically…” she leaned over to the desk, brushing her arm ever so slightly to his on the way back, causing him to crack a small smile “gasoline, paint thinner and lighter fluid.”

“Sadly, those are really common and flammable items.” Kelly shook his head and motioned at the folders next to Watson “Tell me about the next one.”

Watson handed over the next folder.

“November 2017. Almost a month apart from Prong’s death Commander Jason Porter’s home burned down with him still inside. He was a senior officer and the first was first ruled an electrical fire, plus he lived in Baltimore, MD. There was a mix up in the lab and it took almost 3 weeks to get back the tests from the samples collected at the scene, which revealed traces of gasoline on Porter’s body.”

“Similar char line though,” Kelly flipped through the pictures “and the lab test says it was gasoline, lighter fluid and… turpentine?” he looked up from the report.

“Yes, that’s why no one made the connection at first. Especially since for the first two weeks it was ruled as an electrical fire until they found the gasoline trace on his body.”

“I can see how someone could rule this as an electrical. The fire originated in the kitchen, at the oven. Easy to rule it as electrical, blame it on faulty wiring – less paperwork.”

Watson raised her eyebrows questioningly.

“Look, we all know investigators who do crap work, right?” Severide smiled at her and she smiled back “But look at the wall behind the oven.” he leaned in again, the scent was back again, dulling her mind.

“It’s a U-shape, again.” Watson said and Severide smiled, obviously enjoying the effect he had on such a strong and smart woman.

“It’s easy to mistake it for a V if you don’t know you are looking for a U instead.”

“Yes, but if this was the same person, he or she got cockier. Previously, Prong died of smoke inhalation, the accelerant’s char line stopped at his bedroom entrance. This time, the victim was doused in it?”

“Tricky, that’s for sure.” Severide smiled “Most people don’t stay still enough and wait to be doused in gasoline to be lit on fire afterwards.”

A blaring noise followed by a siren disrupted them – well, he was used to it, but she jumped back a feet from it and the noise was followed by a loud female voice announcing:

_“Truck 81, Engine 51, Squad 3, Ambulance 61. Structure fire. 1295 W Flournay Street.”_

“Gotta go, sorry!” Severide brandished his trademark style smile then ran out of his office towards the truck Watson admired on her way in.

Not knowing for how long they’ll be gone she laid on her stomach on Kelly’s bed and started going through the third and last folder, by herself – again –, while she tried her best not to get distracted by the sweet fragrance that lingered in the room even after he left.

**_to be continued_ **


	4. Score

The call seemed to last longer than what Sarah’s patience could take, so she stood up from Severide’s bed, put the last folder onto his desk and wrote a short note to him which included her phone number. She gathered her coat, beanie, scarf and gloves and headed out into the cold. Once she was out the door she wished she decided to stay a bit longer in the heat but she had a job to do. She quickly walked home and after brewing herself a fresh cup of coffee she sat down in the living room and called Rear Admiral Collins’ hotel room. After four rings a male voice answered.

“Yes?” just one question, without giving away anything.

“It’s me, Watson. I want to know more about this conference the Rear Admiral will attend, I want to be there as well.”

“Come to the hotel, this is not something we can discuss over the phone.” with that he hung up. _Rude_ – she thought. Of course she was not about to discuss sensitive matters over the phone, she just wanted to announce her arrival she there’d be no surprises.

She put her coffee cup into the dishwasher, pulled on another enormous amount of clothing to shield her from the cold and called a taxi. In just 25 minutes she knocked three times on the hotel room’s door which only opened slightly at first then as her sight was taken in by the person inside it swung open. She walked in and the man behind the door shut it quickly, it was Jackson, who explained why they didn’t land at O’Hare on the plane. Sarah took off her extra layer of clothes and plopped down into the nearest chair.

“Man, it’s cold outside.” she sighed.

“I wouldn’t know.” Rear Admiral Collins walked in from the other room “These boys never let me near a window.” her smile was not genuine.

“Okay… so when’s the conference exactly?” Sarah tried steering this conversation to the point.

“It starts tonight, 8pm.” Jackson sat down in the chair next to her “We’ll be there at 7.30pm. Initial search and sweep will be done by that time, CPD only knows someone of importance is attending but whether that be a celebrity or not – they don’t know that much detail.” he pulled out a notebook from his shirt pocket.

“It’s good to keep a low profile. From what I gathered, the arsonist is getting cockier. They are not afraid to be seen anymore. The second victim? He was doused in gasoline.”

“That’s not something you sit around for, right?” another MA came out the room Collins just came out of, according to his nametag, he was Grant.

“No, it’s not. You fight back!” Sarah nodded “But the body was too badly burned to determine whether there were any defensive wounds at all or to gather DNA from under his nails.”

“Which means, he’ll not be afraid to attack.” Grant said.

“I doubt the arsonist will show up at the conference. Too big a crowd.” Watson shook her head.

“We will continue to prepare for it anyway.” The third MA arrived from another room from the opposite direction Grant and Collins came from. His nametag indicated his name was Morris. Everyone nodded in unison, only Collins sighed loudly and sat down on the couch. As advised, Sarah went home, to have time to dress for the occasion and to avoid them being seen together. _This time it was the less the merrier._

***

Their last call have seemed to last forever to Severide. He was eager to get back to the firehouse, hoping to find Sarah waiting for him in his bed. He smirked at the thought then sat in his usual place in their squad truck. The drive back was a lot longer without the sirens and he kept drumming his fingers on the window sill. When they got back he jumped out of his gear and rushed straight to his quarters, stopping disappointedly in his door. His bed was empty and there was a yellow post it note on his desk.

“Couldn’t wait any longer. You can reach me at this number. Watson.”

“Scored another number, Lieutenant?” Severide heard his coworker, Cruz’s voice from behind him.

“It’s not what you think, Cruz.” he grinned.

“So it’s not from a hot, young lady looking forward to your call?” Cruz teased him.

“In that case, it’s exactly what you think.” Severide laughed as he stepped into his office and Cruz walked by, joining the others in the kitchen. He flipped through the last folder she left for him, looking through the photos and the lab reports. He spent an hour, trying to put together the pieces of this puzzle. He pulled out his phone and was about to dial Sarah’s number when the all too familiar siren blared again.

“Truck 81, Engine 51, Squad 3, Ambulance 61. Factory accident…”

“Damn it.” he cursed, put away his phone and ran to join the others on yet another dangerous call.

***

At 7.25pm Sarah climbed out of a taxi’s backseat after paying her fare and walked to the front entrance of the building. It was a good 20 minutes’ drive to McCormick Place’s West Building but it still wasn’t enough to warm Sarah up. She showed her badge to security at the front entrance who let her in without any trouble. Which meant she didn’t have to give up her gun at the security checkpoint. She walked to the designated meeting area, where Morris told her to be there at 7.30pm sharp. She arrived at the same time as Collins and her team – they greeted each other with simple nods and Watson took her place next to Collins, who was not wearing her uniform tonight so she could blend into the crowd. There was only one talk left for the day and while Sarah accompanied Watson outside the lecture hall, on the inside it was Grant’s task to sit next to Collins. So when the time came Watson stayed behind at the bar while Collins met up with Grant and went inside. Sarah ordered a peach ice tea to keep her awake for the coming hours. She checked her phone while sipping her drink. No new messages, no calls, nothing. _Must be a busy day at the firehouse_ – she thought. 15 minutes later when she ordered her second drink her phone started buzzing on the counter. Since the number was not familiar to her nor saved in her phone, she answered.

“Agent Watson.”

“Agent Watson, this is Lieutenant Severide.” she almost choked on her drink “Is this a good time?”

“Yes, sure. I’m at the McCormick, work assignment. But I have some time to talk. Did you get a chance to check out the third folder as well?”

“Just briefly, it was a busy shift.” she could almost hear him smile through the phone “I’d say there’s a pattern to it. The fires are getting bigger and cockier. Traces of accelerant were also found on your third victim, but if I read the ME’s report right, Captain Cortez was killed before the fire. I couldn’t make it out how though.”

Sarah drank another sip of ice tea and sighed.

“Broken neck. The perp broke her neck before lighting up her home.”

A few seconds of silence followed on the other side, the words hitting Severide more than he thought they would.

“Can we meet up again, tomorrow? There are a few other things I’d like to run by you.” Sarah broke the silence.

“Yeah, sure. Where?” she could hear a car’s door being slammed and she assumed Severide was about to head home or wherever these guys spent the night after a shift.

“I’ll text you the address. It’s a safe house.” Watson glanced at her watch, the minutes were passing by way too slowly.

“Great, I’ll meet you there at 10am?” she heard the car being started.

“Make it 11.30 and bring lunch.” Sarah smiled “It looks like I’m about to have a long night.”

She heard his soft laugh over the phone.

“Text me what you want for lunch as well.” with that they said goodbye and while Severide started for Molly’s, their usual place to hang out after a shift, Sarah plopped down onto a couch in the hallway. She texted her address to Severide. The answer only came after an excruciatingly long 30 minutes.

_You forgot your lunch order._

She smiled to herself and she was about to answer when a loud bang tore through the silence of the hallway. She jumped up, quickly tucked away her phone in her jeans’ pocket and listened for any other noises. Another pop came then the sound of screams echoed through the empty hallways. It came from the lecture hall. She ran towards the front door where she met with a crowd trying their best to get out of there as soon as possible. But she had to fight herself through that crowd to get inside, check on Collins and the others. By the time she got inside, those 5 minutes felt like forever to her, the hall seemed empty except for one body in the front row. She ran as fast as she could, pulling out her gun and checking her surroundings. It was Grant. He had been shot in the head, once. But why did she hear two pops and why wasn’t the crowd screaming after the first? She didn’t have time to contemplate, she ran to the side door which was thrown wide open. The rest of the team presumably got Collins out there safe and sound. The side door led to an empty hallway which lead to the back door where she first met the team at 7.30pm.

The back door was thrown open as well and as she got closer she could hear several loud pops and bangs travel through the night. Gun in her hand she ran outside, seeking cover as soon as possible to assess the situation.

“Watson!” Jackson shouted from across the parking lot. She tried to locate his voice but failed utterly until he resurfaced from behind a car to send out a couple of shots towards the other direction. Sarah slowly leaned out from behind the dumpster she was hiding, and eyed her target. She saw one guy, a couple of rows away, shooting at Jackson’s general direction from behind another dumpster, hitting quite a few cars on the way which caused them to fill the night with their blaring sirens. When the perp stopped shooting Sarah looked at Jackson who reemerged from behind his cover.

“Cover me!” Sarah shouted, stood up and started walking towards the perp’s direction, staying close to the wall and out of Jackson’s way who kept firing until he emptied another magazine. She stopped in her tracks, crouching. Seconds later the perp resurfaced and Sarah aimed her SIG Sauer P320 at his head. However, four more shots rang out that night. One came from Sarah’s gun, hitting the perp in between his eyes, who sent out one more bullet in Jackson’s direction before his life flashed in front of his eyes, but two more came flying from behind another car.

***

Severide was slowly sipping away at his beer, casually checking his phone every few minutes, waiting for Sarah’s text. He knew she was working but it took too long for her to answer. Before he knew it, his friend and fellow firefighter, who also owned Molly’s, rushed to raise the volume of the TV in the bar.

“Quiet everyone!” Herrmann shouted over the voices. Severide looked up at the screen and with the volume raised now everyone could hear the news reporter’s voice:

**_Several shots have been fired in Near South Side at the McCormick Place West Building and its adjoining parking lot, at the time we can only report two casualties and multiple injured._ **

Severide’s heart almost jumped out of his chest. McCormick Place? She heard Watson’s voice in his head: “ _I’m at the McCormick, work assignment, but I have some time to talk._ ”

He slammed a 10 dollar bill on the counter and rushed out to his car, driving over there as fast as possible. It still took him 30 minutes with all the traffic in town. He parked as near to the scene as possible and ran over to the building which by now was swarmed with the press and the police. He tried his best to see through the crowd overlooking the parking lot. Thanks to him being 5 ft 11 he could usually see through the crowd more easily. What he saw did not calm his mind, nor his racing heart.

A body covered with a black sheet and someone lying not so far away with paramedics working on them. He inched closer, weaving through the crowd in an attempt to overhear anything that would calm him. The moment he stepped to the front row, yellow tape pressing to his coat he heard the paramedics shout:

_“She’s losing a lot of blood! The bullet must have nicked an artery! We need to get her to the hospital. NOW!”_

**_to be continued_ **


	5. On the Rocks

Severide inched closer to where the ambo was parked, trying to make out anything else that would be of use.

“Call ahead to Med!” one of the paramedics shouted as he secured the victim on the stretcher, his partner talked into his radio.

“This is ambo 98, we have a female victim with a GSW, losing a lot of blood. 8 minutes out.”

Severide was still trying to sneak a look to figure out who was on that gurney, but he still couldn’t see. He took a deep breath and was about to sneak under the yellow tape when he heard a familiar voice that made him stop dead in his tracks.

“Sir, I’m going to have to ask you to stay behind the tape.”

He took a step back and looked up, only to see

“Watson?” he couldn’t believe his eyes “I thought that… that was you…” he motioned towards the now leaving ambulance. As his heart and mind calmed down a bit he looked her up and down, his gaze finally resting on her right shoulder, where her coat was torn and bloody. She followed his gaze, realizing what he was looking at, she shrugged, followed by a small wince.

“I’m fine.” she smiled “It’s just a graze.” he finally met her eyes, a thousand questions running through his mind and it seemed like she was adept at reading him “That poor woman was part of the place’s security detail, she ran out the back door and right into the crossfire. She got hit in her neck, it looked pretty bad the last time I saw her.”

Watson shook her head, trying to get the memory of the gasping woman out of her head. She kept rubbing her hands, but not because of the ice cold air of the night. She was trying to rub down the blood she got on herself while she was keeping pressure on that poor woman’s neck wound. Severide did not know what to say, he was not someone to be at a loss of words usually. Watson noticing the silence growing between them smiled.

“I’ll be right back. If you want to, we could grab something to drink…”

“Absolutely.” he snapped out of his blankness, a slow smile spreading on his face. He has seen a lot worse in all his years as a firefighter so he could not explain the feelings stirring up inside him. He watched Watson walk back to the swarm of police officers on scene.

Sarah got out her phone and called her boss, Leroy Jethro Gibbs and filled him in on the recent events.

“That’s it, I’m sending Torres on the next available flight.” she heard his voice on the phone.

“That’s not necessary, boss. We don’t even know if this is connected. This might be just a…”

“Rule 39, Watson.”

“There is no such thing as coincidence.” she sighed “But can you at least give me another day, see if I can find out more?”

“You have the night, Torres is flying out first thing in the morning. Will meet you at your place.” with that Gibbs hung up on her. _Great, essentially, I’m getting a babysitter_. – Sarah’s face flushed with anger just when she walked up to the detective in charge of the crime scene, Antonio Dawson.

“Agent Watson.” the young man welcomed her into the circle of detectives.

“Are we done here? You have my statement, if you need anything else, give me a call.” she said as she handed over a name card.

“Will do.” the man smiled and with that Sarah walked back to where she last saw Severide, except he was not there anymore. She halted, scanning the faces, trying to make him out in the huge crowd that has gathered since the shooting. She started walking closer, still scanning the faces and when she was just 30ft out Severide’s blue eyes reemerged from the crowd, he was standing right at the tape again, but a bit further away from where he’d stood earlier. She quickened her pace until she was only a few steps away and only then she allowed herself to crack a small smile.

“Let’s get out of here.” she said, still smiling as Severide slightly raised the yellow tape for her.

“I know just the place.” Severide smiled but before they cleared the crowd a swarm of light almost blinded them as reporters gathered around them.

_“Agent Watson! Can you tell us what happened tonight?”_

_“Agent Watson! Who was the real target?”_

Hundreds of questions flied towards her and she tried her best to avoid any cameras by holding up her right hand in front of her face, slightly wincing as the coat’s torn fabric moved over her wound. By instinct, Severide grabbed her left hand and pulled her after him, guiding her out of the crowd and away from the cameras. When they were in safe distance and no one seemed to follow them, he let go of her.

“Hey, are you okay?” he asked, trying to catch her eye but she kept looking down “Earth to Watson?”

“What? Yeah… yeah, I’m fine.” she shook her head, cracking a small smile and finally looking up at him “Just get us out of here.”

“Yes, Ma’am.” he smiled and motioned towards his ride. As they got closer she finally recognized the car, she had seen it before when she visited the Firehouse.

“Nice ride!” she smiled as they got in.

“I have one weakness.” he laughed as he started the engine “Mustangs.”

She laughed whole-heartedly, the weight of what happened that night finally not weighing her down.

“Well, if that’s the only weakness you’ve got…” she teased him, still smiling.

“Well, it’s the only one I’m letting you in on right now.” he winked at her and started towards his favorite place. After a few minutes of silence she was eager to know their destination.

“So, where are we going exactly?” she asked casually as she watched the buildings blur by on her side.

“Molly’s.”

“I’ve never heard about it.” she replied then quickly corrected herself “Then again, I haven’t heard about 95% of the places in Chicago, so… I’ll trust your judgment on this one.”

“You’ll like it, trust me.” he laughed, sneaking a look at her, their eyes meeting for a second then they both glanced away “It’s a nice bar, owned by some fellow firefighters and friends of mine.”

“Good. I hope they have something strong, because I’m in need of a few drinks tonight.” she sighed, her mind racing back to the horrible events of the night. It kept replaying in her head, she kept trying to make out where the two shots came from. She was sure it was from behind a car as she couldn’t see anyone else there. But who was it and why were they shooting at her and not in the direction where the team extracted the Rear Admiral. Her thoughts were distracted by her phone’s stubborn ringing.

“I think you might want to answer that one.” Severide smiled. The phone has been ringing for some time now, but Sarah had seemed lost in her thoughts. She nodded and pulled out her phone. Caller ID was unknown.

“Yeah?” she had to stay cautious, after all, her name was out in the press now.

“It’s Jackson. The Eagle is secure and the rest of the nest is fine. Are you?”

“I got hit but it’s just a graze.” she looked at her right shoulder, where the dried blood indicated her wound.

“Regroup is out of the question, your name is out. We are terminating contact. Good luck.” with that the line went dead. She dropped the phone in her lap.

“Is everything okay?” Severide asked as he pulled into a spot near Molly’s entrance.

“Nothing a few good drinks can’t cure.” she smiled, but he could see through her. He saw she was hurting and not just due to her wound. Something larger was at play and she was not ready to talk about it. He led her through the huge wooden front door. It was almost 10pm and Molly’s was moderately full.

“Saved your place, Kelly.” a thirty something woman with long curly black hair waved to Severide from behind the bar.

“Thanks, Stella!” he smiled and led Watson to where he was previously sitting and pulled up another chair beside her.

“So this is where you guys hang out?” she looked around. Fairy lights hanging from the ceiling and pictures of firefighters and other relics were hanged on the walls “Nice.” she smiled.

“See? I told you, it’s the best place in Chicago.” Severide smiled as his friend Herrmann approached them.

“Hear, hear! What can I get you guys?” Herrmann asked and it took him a few seconds to realize he did not know the woman sitting next to Kelly “Christopher Herrmann, firefighter and owner of Molly’s. And the coworker of this charmer.” he smiled as he extended a hand. Sarah almost shook it when she realized she still had dried blood on her hands.

“Sarah Watson.” she smiled and apologetically showed up her hands “I’m sorry.” she stood up “I need to get this off of me.” with that she rushed towards the bathroom.

Before Severide could get lost in his thoughts Cruz tapped him on the shoulder.

“So that’s your score, Lieutenant?” Cruz laughed.

“Not now, Cruz.” Herrmann shooed him away before Severide could even answer.

“Thanks, Herrmann. Tonight took a different kind of turn than what I was planning.” he sighed.

“Scotch on the rocks for you then?” Herrmann offered.

“Make it two.” Kelly smiled “She had a rougher night.” Kelly pointed towards the TV which still showed a live footage of McCormick’s shooting aftermath.

“Holy…” Herrmann swallowed the rest of his sentence “Those drinks are coming right up.”

***

 Sarah spent a good couple of minutes in the bathroom, standing in front of the mirror, rubbing her hands with soak until they hurt. She let the cold water soak off the bubbles, then dried her hands in a paper towel and walked back to her place.

“If you don’t mind, I went ahead and ordered you a drink as well.” Severide smiled at her as she sat down next to him.

“Until it has a considerable amount of alcohol in it, you are not in trouble.” she smiled as Herrmann arrived with their drinks, scotch on the rocks “Oh yeah, you chose just fine.” she laughed and after clinking glasses she took a big sip and she put her glass back down with a big, heavy sigh. After a few sips in silence he looked at her, his eyes dead serious.

“So, what were you doing at the McCormick tonight?”

“I told you, I was on a work assignment.” she was not able to hold his look for more than a few seconds, his eyes cutting into her as if he was trying to see into her soul “Fine. It’s loosely related to our arson case anyway.”

She downed the rest of her drink and ordered another one.

“A senior officer was a guest at a conference there. I was a part of her security detail. I had eyes on her before the conference and I was supposed to be the look out in the hallway, at the front.” she sighed, drinking the half of her second drink “Our man on the inside was shot in the head and the rest of the team extracted the officer. I followed them outside, that’s when the shooting happened. You know that part.” she downed the rest of her second drink “And that call I got on the way here? The team terminated contact with me as my name is out in the press and I’m too hot to be around the admiral.”

He bit down on his lip, stopping himself from making a comment on her ‘too hot to be around’ comment and instead he downed his drink as well, ordering a second one.

“And on top of that, my boss is sending out a babysitter tomorrow.”

“A babysitter?” he grinned.

“Another agent.” another drink “This was supposed to be an easy week. Work on the arson cases and oversee the admiral’s attendance of the gala. Now all I’m left with is the arson cases which seem to be going nowhere. And they won’t be going anywhere until the son of a b*tch makes another move.”

After her third drink her filters were getting hazy, but she ordered a fourth drink anyway. Anything to drown out the night’s terrors. Anything to make her forget. She was on her fifth drink in a few minutes, both of their moods gradually becoming better as the alcohol dampened the bad feelings in their minds. They kept talking, getting to know each other, with Watson occasionally hitting him playfully on the shoulder after a cocky comment.

It was just past 11pm when she decided it was time to get home.

“It’s getting late, I should head home.” Watson smiled, putting a twenty dollar bill on the bar. She stood up, but had to steady herself in her chair as she felt a bit wobbly.

“Woah there, let me get you home. You’ve been through enough for one night.” he laughed as he paid the rest of the tab and put his hands on her shoulders as he slowly guided her out of Molly’s. He drove her home, the drive was rather silent, she only watched the buildings blur by. The drinks dampened her mind but not enough to completely forget what happened a few hours before. He walked her up to her front door.

“You should get that looked at.” he smiled, pointing at the tear in her coat.

“A bit more alcohol and a gauze will work just fine.” she laughed as she opened her door “Unless you want to take a look…” she teased him and his eyes sparked.

“Come on Watson, I’ll patch you up.” he laughed and they walked in. She dropped her coat on the floor in the hall and walked to the living room, picking up the first aid kit from the kitchen. He hung up his coat in the hall and followed her to the living room. She sat down on the couch, handed him the kit and he sat down next to her.

“Damn, they messed up my favorite sweater!” she grinned as she pulled her NCIS sweater off and dropped it on the floor. She laid back on the back cushion and let him take care of her. She winced as he rolled up her sleeve.

“You seriously need to get this looked at tomorrow. It might need a couple of stitches.” he said as he sterilized the wound. He put a couple of 4x4 gauze pads on it and taped it in place. He put back the tape into the first aid kit box as she admired his handy work.

“Almost good as new.” she grinned and when he looked at her as he leaned back, there was a spark in her eyes as well. They gazed at each other for a few seconds before moving in unison towards each other until their lips finally locked in a searing kiss.

**_to be continued_ **


	6. Let's Focus

Sarah woke up at 10am, practically jumping out of bed. She worked up a sweat overnight, waking up from nightmares two times. She thought her mind was finally clear of the shooting but she was wrong.

At 10am she slowly walked down to the kitchen and brew herself a coffee in a big mug she found in the cupboard. Her mind was racing again, flashes of the night blinding her and a splitting headache followed.

“Damn, I drank too much last night.” she shook her head and slowly sipped at the hot coffee. She walked to the living room, switching on the TV and that’s when she saw the first aid kit, still on the table. She looked at the couch, her sweater still on the floor next to it. Her mind raced back to the night and that was when it hit her. She gasped at the memory.

_They kissed and not just a small quick kiss. It was long and hot and they almost moved forward but Severide stopped her._

_“Not like this.” he whispered, giving her another small kiss. She laid down on the couch and Severide dropped a blanket on her, then moved to the armchair next to the couch. She allowed herself to succumb to the alcohol’s numbing effects while she still felt his gaze on her._

She smiled and sat down on the couch wrapping herself in the same blanket. She wondered how she got upstairs and into her bed when she remembered falling asleep here on the couch. No matter which channel she chose, they only showed last night’s events on the news. Then it hit her. She woke up in the middle of the night from her first nightmare and after drinking a considerable amount of water she dragged herself upstairs and into her bed.

***

Kelly woke up sometime after 9am to his phone buzzing. He forgot to turn off his Wi-Fi for the night when he got home after midnight. He went to get a shower and after drying himself he pulled on shorts and his favorite dark blue CFD tank top. He walked into the kitchen with all intents and purposed to drown himself in coffee. He was looking for his mug when Stella walked out of her room, ready to leave.

“I left you some.” she smiled and picked up her keys “You had a good night?”

“It had some unexpected turns.” he smiled to himself remembering his kiss with Sarah.

“Go get ‘em, tiger.” Stella laughed. She was his roommate for a while now until she could find her own place. She had a few lined up, but they were all out of her price range. She had been seeing a firefighter named Zach who was working on the Hazmat squad. After Kelly and Stella resolved their lingering feelings between them a couple of weeks ago from their previous fling, Severide only guessed she had been reluctant to move out because she was waiting for Zach to ask her to move in with him. He smiled to himself when she closed the door behind her. He checked his phone while drinking his morning coffee. No new text messages or calls, just a couple of e-mails from work, probably one of them woke him up. Then his eyes lingered on last night’s texts with Watson, his being the last sent out.

_You forgot your lunch order._

He smiled and plopped down onto his couch turning on the TV. Wherever he turned, everything was about the shooting. He couldn’t help but let his mind wander back in time. That kiss… it was not a quick, I’m drunk and this will feel like a mistake in the morning kiss. It was hot and they both wanted more but he had no intention of doing that to her. She was a bit tipsy from the five drinks she had that night. He looked at the clock. 10:30am. On a spur of the moment he turned off the TV, went back to his bedroom to get dressed and left his flat.

***

Watson was checking her e-mails when her phone buzzed. A text came from McGee saying Torres was on his way to Chicago and asked Sarah to keep McGee updated on the cases. She sighed, opened up an empty report sample and started typing away. She still had a vivid memory of what happened at the conference, she was almost done when phone buzzed again. She checked and sighed, just some weather alert. She checked the time: 11:15am – her stomach growled, indicating that the coffee and some biscuits she found was not sufficient enough to last her the day. She thought about going out to grab some food but then she looked out the window, snow slowly falling and she decided to order in. _As soon as I finish this damn report._

She was finishing up the report in just about 10 minutes when her mind wandered back to the moment when the cameras blinded her. _She froze but he grabbed her hand and guided her out of the crowd._

Sarah was browsing through Chicago’s most recommended take-out places and she was about to decide what to order from and where when her doorbell rang. Her heart skipped a beat and instinctively she reached for her gun. It was not in her purse. _Damn it!_ – she thought. She forgot Antonio Dawson took her service weapon, had to run ballistics on it then she’d get it back. The doorbell rang again. She grabbed a knife from the kitchen and inched to the door. She moved silently, knife at the ready and peered through the peep hole. Her heart skipped another beat. She lowered the knife and opened the door.

“Severide?” she asked, surprised.

“Hey,” he smiled then his eyes noticed the knife “You cookin’?” he grinned.

“Not exactly.” she smiled and took a step back letting him in. She quickly closed the door behind him in order not to let any more of that freezing air come in. He hung up his coat, same place as the night before and showed up the two bags of food he had been carrying.

“As promised.” he smiled, she looked a bit confused at first but as they walked into the kitchen she noticed the time. 11:30am.

“This better be some good food, because I’m starving.” Watson smiled, trying to make out the logo on the bag.

“Only the best burger and fries in town.” he pulled out the carefully wrapped food “Come on, we’ve got some work to do, right?” Kelly smiled as Watson pulled two plates out of the cupboard. They sat down in the living room, eating at first in silence.

“This is amazing.” she smiled “I might have to come to Chicago more often to try this.”

“I’d like that.” he grinned, finishing his food quicker than Watson who savored the good food.

“Thanks for coming.” Sarah smiled “You didn’t have to.”

“I’m on a 24/48 shift and I had nothing planned. Plus, we agreed on meeting up even before…” he didn’t finish his sentence, he was not sure what she remembered from last night. She finished her last bite and smiled at him.

“Then let’s get some work done.” she was a master at avoiding topics she didn’t want to talk about. He was not about to argue with that. He offered to take the plates to the kitchen while she ran up for the folders, only to realize she left them with Severide, so she came down with her laptop instead.

“Since you have my folders…”

“Crap, sorry. I left them at 51.” he scratched the back of his head “I could run out to get them though.”

“No, it’s fine. I had everything uploaded onto my laptop.” she smiled and watched as he walked back from the kitchen and sat down next to her, leaving a smaller gap between them than when they were eating.

“Did you find anything that we could use to set up an MO?” Watson searched for her files.

“Apart from the fact that your perp is using common but flammable household items? Not exactly. Looking at pictures is one thing, I’d have to see the scenes with my own eyes.” he sighed, trying to remember the pictures “One thing is sure. Your perp always operates using a puddle of origin, that’s why there are always U-shaped burns. But even the char lines are different.”

“So basically, we’ve got nothing to go on.” Watson shook her head.

“You know, arson cases are not easy. Usually almost every piece of evidence burns away so we’ve got very little to go on. And even if you catch the bastard at another scene it is almost always impossible to tie them to the other scenes without evidence.”

“Which get conveniently burnt away.” she sighed.

“Without a confession, you guys have a slim chance of actually locking the perp away for a long time.”

“Well, for a confession, we usually need the perp’s name.” she grinned then her smile quickly faded “The victims don’t make sense either. They are not even in the same ranks and didn’t even work at the same base.”

“Have you checked the buildings for common ownership? Or maybe we could look at geography and calendar groupings. Maybe they were a part of a secret task force or who knows what you guys do at NCIS.” he smiled. She typed the addresses into her program, made by McGee which could search every database they needed.

“Okay, ownership. Every victim lived in a Navy issued home except for the third victim, Captain Cortez. She had her own house.”

“Okay, what about geography?”

“She aligned the addresses onto a map.

“All three happened in Maryland. But the first was Annapolis, the second Baltimore and the third was Rockville.” she shook her head then a thought came to her “There is one more thing we could check out.” she opened the arson case’s folder on her computer and brought the scanned in letter they got with a list of intended victims onto the screen.

“What’s this?” Severide looked confused.

“Not long ago, the office received an untraceable letter which contained 23 names. Three were crossed out, those are the previous victims. Now the title said: _Twenty officers, sizzling in a pan; three went pop and another will go bang”_ Watson filled him in.

“Creepy as hell.” he said, a hint of disgust in his tone. Watson filled him in on the rest of the names, explaining that Collins was the only one taking a trip and that’s why Sarah was in Chicago as well.

“I thought the bang meant the shooting, but as far as I can remember, only one shooter shot in the direction of Collins and he had a terrible aim, shooting up a number of cars and the mysterious second person was the only one whose two bullets both hit their targets, even if it just grazed me.”

“Seems like we’ll have to wait until your perp makes its next move.” Severide sighed and Sarah only nodded. The silence grew between them for a few minutes.

“Look, about last night…”

“Last night was…” they started at the same time, catching each other off guard, causing them to crack a smile.

“How much do you remember?” Severide asked, turning his body slightly towards her.

“I mean, I was tipsy, but I think I remember everything.” she smiled as she slowly inched closer to him. There was that sweet fragrance again, blinding her senses “And I don’t remember regretting anything.”

“So you remember everything?” he moved closer to her as well, she nodded in silence, her eyes darting to his lips every few seconds. This was all the signal he needed and he quickly closed the space between them, their lips clashing in a feverous kiss. He cupped her face, bringing her closer to him while she raked her fingers through his short hair. She only came up for air long enough to sit onto his lap, facing him then their lips found their ways again. She was toying with the hem of shirt as he was tracing his fingers down her spine when the doorbell rang. They both ignored it at first. Then came the furious knocking, almost threatening to break down the door. With a sigh Sarah stood up and stomped to the door, feeling Kelly’s gaze burning into her back. She opened the door in a blink, almost tearing it down from the frame and asked slightly agitated.

“What?!” before she realized who was standing in front of her.

“You still sleeping after noon, Watson?” Nick Torres asked, pointing at her ruffled hair then stepped inside. She cursed under her breath and slammed in the door after him “Easy, Watson. NCIS won’t pay for a new door.” Torres laughed as he kicked off his shoes and hung up his coat. Only then did he notice another coat on the hanger.

“You have a visitor?” he asked looking around, only then noticing Severide sitting on the couch.

“Uhm, yeah.” she cleared her throat “This is Lieutenant Kelly Severide with CFD, he is the expert who has been helping me with the arson cases.” she motioned toward Kelly who quickly stood up, smoothing over his T-shirt and started walking towards them.

“He’s been helping you all right.” Torres said grinning so only Sarah could hear him, then moved forward to shake hands with Kelly “Lieutenant. I’m Special Agent Nick Torres.”

Torres walked to the kitchen, helping himself to a cup of much needed coffee.

“I thought I’d drop by with my stuff before checking on Collins.” Torres added casually “Just to see how things are going here.”

“Such a nice surprise.” Sarah sneered while Kelly had to stifle a laugh.

**_to be continued_ **


	7. Heat

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Took me a few days, but: enjoy! :)

Watson had been sitting on her couch, laptop in her lap, browsing through endless NCIS files for the past 3 hours. After Torres’ so rude timing the day before, Severide had to run an errand for a friend. Sarah haven’t seen him since, but Kelly promised to drop in with the folders he left at the firehouse. Any excuse was fine by him, which meant he could see her again.

Torres was just waking up in the 2nd bedroom when Sarah was already pouring her 2nd coffee of the day.

“Morning.” she smiled as her coworker descended the stairs “Wow, you look like hell.”

“Good morning to you too, Watson.” he groaned and went to pour himself a good amount of coffee.

“Do you have any news on Collins?” Sarah tried, desperate for some new info that could shine a new light on her cases.

“Not really. The gala’s security will be fortified after what happened at that conference and I doubt the arsonist would target the hotel. Too many eyes, too easy to get caught.” Nick sipped away at his coffee “And there have been no new attack back at home either.”

“So this little piece of shit either went dormant or…”

“Or, they are planning something big.” Torres finished her sentence and that was what she was afraid to hear. If the perp is planning to hit big, anyone could be a target, even herself, Torres, or anyone they had been in contact with. She made a mental note to check the house later for flammable liquids and get rid of what she’d find.

“There’s an NCIS field office here in Chicago. I’m going in today, to check in with them and see if they can lend a hand at the gala.” Torres finished his coffee and Sarah was eager to join him “You? No… you are staying here and keep digging.”

She sighed, putting away her mug into the dishwasher.

“You know what I hate the most, Nick?” she glared at him and he shrugged “Being kept on the sidelines.” she slammed the dishwasher close, glasses clinking inside and walked back to the couch. Watson resumed her previous position and continued digging up as much as she could on the names on the list. Torres shook his head slowly. He knew this feeling all too good. After getting out of the undercover business, he got sidelined a lot and it was excruciating. However, letting Sarah anywhere near the Rear Admiral would be a risk he was not willing to take. She had to learn to play her part in this.

***

Before she noticed, it was getting dark and Torres was still out with a text indicating he’d be getting home pretty late. Something about checking in with the intelligence unit at CPD then going to bar. She was more than fine with that, she put her laptop aside and flipped on the TV. She didn’t really pay attention, her mind wandering back to the day before when Torres had so rudely interrupted her fun time with Kelly. She was looking for her phone to give Kelly a call when her doorbell rang.

_I swear to God if it’s Torres, I’m locking him up in his bedroom._ – she thought and marched to the door, ready to give Torres a piece of her mind, but when she opened the door she met Kelly Severide’s blue eyes and charming smile instead.

“I thought I’d drop these off.” he smiled, waving the folders in his hands.

“Well, come on in, don’t just stand there.” she grinned. After discarding his coat, he only had a chance to take a few steps before Sarah snatched away the folders and threw them on the kitchen counter. When she met his gaze, he had those sparks again in his eyes, those blue eyes that she just couldn’t resist. So she went ahead and closed the distance between them, locking their lips in a searing kiss. When her hands started tugging at the helm of his shirt, he groaned and took a step back.

“What are we doing, Sarah?” he asked, still short of breath from their kiss.

“I thought it was kind of obvious.” she smirked and took a few step backwards, towards the large dining table set between the kitchen and the living room. As she walked backwards, she could feel those perfect eyes wander over her, eyeing her, a firm stare locked in her body. He looked like a ravenous animal, ready to pounce.

“Having second thoughts, Severide?” she teased him and that was all he needed to close the distance she created between them. The next thing she knew their lips were locked again, tongues fighting, his hand running through her soft brown curls. He moved his free hand down to her breast, giving it a squeeze over the fabric. She was tugging at his belt, her impatient fingers trying to get him off his clothes as soon as possible.

For a second, he pulled away, just long enough to lift her up on the table behind her and when he did, she wrapped her legs around his waist, pulling him closer and she could feel his hard on through the fabric. All it did was turn her on even more. And it was like he was reading her mind, every way Severide touched her was exactly what she needed.

“God, you are so hot.” Kelly growled, practically ripping off Sarah’s clothes as he placed hot kisses down her neck. She moaned at the touches, desperately grasping his short hair to keep herself grounded. He continued his kisses upwards, back to her neck and after peeling off her black NCIS shirt, he trailed kisses down to her chest. He tossed the shirt aside effortlessly then continued his way upwards, nibbling at her ear. Desperately, she grabbed his shirt and attempted at removing it, shoving it over his head then she slammed her lips back to his, clasping his jawline.

The rest of their clothes quickly found their way to the floor as well. She trailed kisses on his jaw and neck as he discarded her last clothing. She gently bit down on his neck, kissed its place then pulled away grinning.

“You know, that’s going to leave a mark.” he grinned and his eyes seemed bluer than she had ever seen.

“That was my intention.” she laughed then he pulled her close to him for a long and deep kiss, allowing them to slow their heartbeats. He reached down for his wallet in his discarded jeans for a condom. He grabbed her knees and jerked her legs apart, his throbbing member aiming straight for her entrance, testing her at first. She gasped, going for another ravenous kiss.

“I want you so bad.” she exasperated, her breath hot against his neck, trailing down a new trail of kisses. As if on cue, he pushed her back down against the table and his fingers found her clit, causing her to gasp again and slightly arch her back.

“You want me?” his voice was husky and she gulped, giving a slight nod, as she felt unable to speak. He softly rubbed her clit, sending tingly sensations throughout her body. He leaned down towards her, eyeing her firmly.

“You have no idea what you do to me.” he whispered before pushing himself into her in one quick motion. Watson let out a pleasure-filled moan and instinctively wrapped her legs around his waist, pushing him deeper inside as he rhythmically bucked his hips forward.

He kept kissing her then moving to her neck. The way he moved in and out of her made him so impossibly hot to her that no matter how hard she tried, nothing could hold back from her orgasm quickly rising. She sighed as he trailed down another set of kisses from her neck to her chest while pinching a nipple with one hand.

Sarah had no intention of succumbing to him this easily, she had imagined teasing him by holding off while he desperately tried to get her off. But the sensations took her over. She reached around his back, raking her nails against pale skin for purchase, maybe distracting herself would allow to hold off.

But it was to no avail. Before she knew it he rubbed her clit softly while he sucked on her breast. She was screaming his name in just moments but he wasn’t stopping. Severide continued his motions, dragging her orgasm out, making her beg for more of a release. He was determined to give her the best lay of her life and he was holding himself back.

“Oh God… Kelly… more!” Sarah begged and he complied, lifting her off the table and stood tall, holding her up, grasping her firm ass, holding her as he had her ride him in midair. She put her arms around him, burying her face in the crook of his neck as she rolled her hips to harmonize with his thrusts. It was an impossible feat to ignore the painful yet sweet sensations of allowing him to buck in and out of her so rough and so fast that he kept hitting her g-spot with every move. Sarah was beginning to see stars and to keep herself grounded to reality, she bit into his neck, right at the same spot as she did before, making Severide moan roughly to the gesture.

“Fuck!” he gasped, pounding faster and harder into her and Watson could tell he was almost at his breaking point. To finish off, he pushed her against the wall behind her, using the wall for leverage. They were both writhing in pleasure, faces red hot with pleasuring heat. With one final thrust, he moaned his orgasm, pressing his hands against the wall behind her, still holding her pressed to the wall with his body.

She trailed soft kisses on his neck and nibbled his earlobe when finally he made eye contact. His gorgeous blue eyes were clouded over with lust and they were both gasping for air. In a few seconds, they both settled down on the floor, attempting to catch their breath and normalize their heartbeats.

Sarah looked over to Kelly wearily, her body still tingly from all of that animalistic passion. Suddenly she reached across and pinched his arm. He flinched back,

“Ow! What was that for?”

She gave a grateful smile before resting her head on his shoulder.

***

An hour later Watson and Severide were sitting on her couch, back in their clothes, a mug of hot cocoa in her hands. She snuggled up to him and he put his hands around her.

“I might have to pay you a visit tomorrow.” she smiled and rested one hand on his thigh.

“You are more than welcome at 51.” he grinned, kissing the top of her head “I could ask the Chief to let me keep you around for the shift, _working_ on those cases.”

“Sounds good.” she smiled, finally feeling relaxed and content for the last couple of days, hell, more like weeks. She drank her hot cocoa and put her mug on the small coffee table then snuggled back to him. She could feel herself slowly drifting to sleep as he kept rubbing circles on her shoulder. Severide felt relaxed, felt like the world’s problems were finally not on his shoulders to carry. He planted another kiss on the top of her head and flipped through the channels on the TV as he felt her relaxing, drifting to sleep. He found a Blackhawks game and he desperately wished he had a beer with him. As Watson slept, she rested her head on his thigh and he kept rubbing her back. He swore he would not turn out like his father, rushing after and sleeping with every girl he meets, but something felt different about Watson. She was not like most of his short timed girlfriends. She was intelligent, funny, caring but also a badass.

Suddenly he heard keys turning in the front door and his body tensed. It was late. He turned his head towards the door as much as he could, only to see Nick Torres fumbling with his coat, obviously looking a bit tipsy.

“Oh, it’s you. Again. Hey.” Torres wasn’t better when slightly drunk. Severide waved at him then turned his attention back to the ongoing hockey game. Torres fumbled his way upstairs and the noise woke up Sarah.

“What the hell is this noise?” she yawned, looking mad towards the source.

“Your, uhm, babysitter is home.” Severide grinned.

“I’m fine.” Torres yelled from upstairs “I’ll just need a couple of aspirins and 12 hours of sleep.”

Sarah laughed; she had never seen Torres drunk before. His body was his temple, as he used to say. _Guess that temple needed some fluids today._

She was about to snuggle back to Severide, only to find him sitting up straight, checking his phone.

“Crap, it’s late.” he cursed “I need to go.”

“You could sleep here.” she offered, eyes sparkling again.

“I’m not sure we’d sleep much.” Severide grinned and gave her a quick kiss. Standing up she walked him to the door. They said goodbye with a long and deep kiss neither of them wanted to end.

“I’ll come in around 10am tomorrow. See if I can get something out of Torres by then.” she laughed.

“See you at 10.” Kelly smiled and stole one last quick kiss then walked to his car. She watched him leaving from the door, not caring whether she froze herself in the process. When she could not see the Mustang in her street anymore, she closed the door, turning the keys twice in the process. She had to get some sleep as well if she was about to deal with a hangover Torres in the morning.

**_to be continued_ **


	8. Where there’s smoke…

Watson awoke to some clattering noise coming from the kitchen in the morning. She felt like it was the crack of dawn but when she checked her phone she saw it was actually 7:45am. She pulled on her jeans and changed her shirt then went downstairs only to find a slightly hangover Torres trying to make himself some coffee.

“Torres…” she groaned “Here, let me help.” she put on a fresh pot to brew.

“Thanks.” he pinched his nose between his eyes.

“Too much to drink last night?” she smiled as she took out some biscuits from the cupboard she meant to eat yesterday but never got around to. _They’ll be fine for breakfast_. – she thought.

“Uhm yeah. Antonio suggested a bar called Molly’s and damn it’s good.” he smiled.

“Yeah, it’s good.” she smiled remembering her time with Severide there.

“I’ll be out of your hair soon.” he said as he poured himself a cup of coffee “I got a text from Anderson, senior agent here in Chicago. They want to run a few scenarios.”

“Are you sure you are ready for that?” Watson laughed looking at her worn out coworker.

“No rest for the wicked.” Torres smiled and went back to get ready.

Sarah’s phone started buzzing relentlessly. She picked up hoping it was a call from Severide but it was only a text.

_Spoke to Boden, you can stay as long as you want ;)_

She smiled and typed back that she’d be there at 10am as they agreed upon. A couple of texts later Torres came back down, fully clothed and ready for the day. He still had a splitting headache but he was dealing with it.

“I’ll be back later.” Torres waved then left. It was 8am. She sighed, it was still too early to get to the firehouse so she went back up to her bedroom, opened her laptop and started researching the names they received in the letter.

An hour and a half later she was still nowhere, she kept running into dead ends, leads leading nowhere. She sighed, checking her phone: 9:30am. She smiled to herself and decided to take a shower to clear her head. 10 minutes later she emerged feeling fresh and ready for a long day. She walked back to her room, changing into more comfortable clothes. She was about to text Severide that she’s leaving when she heard a noise, like water rushing, coming from downstairs. It was too early for Torres to be back. Her gun was still with CPD and she left the knife downstairs. She inched closer to the stairs and the pouring noise became louder. She started going down and caught a glimpse of someone pouring something in her living room. She descended without a noise and tried to sneak up on the man wearing all black but the floor croaked as she was a few steps behind him. The man turned around, terrified of Watson being there, he went straight for her. She recognized the can he was pouring from. Lighter fluid for the grill out back. He was about to douse her in it but thanks to her quick reflexes she managed to hit the can out of his hand which went flying through the nearby window. They struggled, she hit him in the guts and was about to deliver another blow when he pulled out a knife from his pocket.

“You know you are not getting away with this.” she took a few steps back, not eager to have the knife pierce her body. The man gave no answer but started for her. She kept dodging his attacks until she was getting cornered. She quickly looked behind her to see how much space she had left when he lunged at her, knocking her straight into the stairs. Everything went black around her.

***

Severide was sitting at their squad table, drumming his fingers on the table. He looked at his watch, 10am and Sarah was nowhere to be seen. She did not seem like someone to be late. He checked his phone. No new texts. He waited another 10 minutes then called Sarah’s phone. It just kept ringing – no answer. He went into the kitchen to call together his squad to take a ride to her place when the call came, the alarm blaring.

_“Truck 81, Engine 51, Squad 3, Ambulance 61. Structure Fire. 1221 W Grenshaw St.”_

Severide stopped in his tracks.

“Fuck, that’s Sarah’s address.” he yelled and ran along the others, jumping into his gear then into their squad truck. The trucks tore through the streets and were on scene in only a few minutes. Severide jumped out of the truck and looked at the 3 story house which was engulfed in flames.

“I’m going in.” he yelled towards his chief, pulling on his mask and putting his helmet back on, he ran in.

“Severide!” Chief Boden yelled at him but Kelly was at the door by then “Casey!”

Matt Casey looked at his chief, nodding, understanding what he meant and pulling on his mask he ran after Severide. Boden sent a team to vent the roof and a team from Engine 51 to get a line in the house.

The flames engulfed everything inside on the ground floor. Kelly looked around but could barely see anything in the smoke. He relied on his memory of the house and inched towards the stairs, Casey right behind him. The stairs were slowly catching on fire too and the smoke travelled up. Severide could see a bit more upstairs where the fire was smaller and had not engulfed everything yet. He had never been in Sarah’s bedroom so he did not know which door to kick in first.

“Fire department. Call out!” Casey shouted behind him but no answer came. Kelly looked around, trying to find a clue as to where to go. That’s when he saw that the fire mainly spread towards two rooms. He nodded to Casey to take the one closest to him on the right. Casey gave him a nod and went to the right while Kelly went left. They kicked in the doors at the same time.

“Fire department. Call out!” Kelly heard Casey’s shout.

“Sarah!” Severide called out. The smoke was getting thicker. He stayed low, inching further inside. He finally caught the leg of a bed. He shone a light onto the bed and saw that a figure was under the covers. He threw away the covers and found her on the bed, unconscious.

“Sarah!” he tried waking her but she didn’t move. He picked her up and was about to walk through the door when he saw it was engulfed in flames.

“Chief! I need a ladder at the northeast corner, first floor. Got an unresponsive female victim, have the paramedics stand by.” he called into his radio. He inched towards the window, which barely let in any light as smoke was covering it. He broke out the window, clearing it from glass with a bedside lamp he found nearby. He peered outside, seeing his coworkers with a 10 feet ladder rushing closer with the paramedics behind them. Severide pulled of his mask and put it on Sarah, hoping this would allow her to breathe. Within a few minutes, they worked their way outside, bringing Sarah down who was on the paramedics’ gurney now.

“We need to intubate!” Gabriela Dawson shouted, rushing to work on Watson with Sylvie Brett, her partner in the ambo. Severide dropped off most of his gear and ran to towards them, coughing as he inhaled some smoke.

“Sarah!” his heart was wrenched “Is she…?”

“She’s alive. Barely.” Brett explained, not noticing Severide’s devastated look.

“She has some small burns on her arms but it’s mostly smoke inhalation.” Dawson said as she noticed Severide’s expression “She’ll be fine, Kelly.”

“You want to ride with us?” Brett asked after realizing her coworker might know their victim. Boden walked up to them.

“Severide?”

“It’s… it’s Watson.” he managed to finally get out the words. Boden looked at Sarah, Dawson and Brett were putting her into the ambulance.

“You mean Agent Watson?” Boden asked, surprised.

“Yeah, Chief. It’s Sarah. The arsonist must have found her.”

“Go, go with her. I’ll get a relief lieutenant for this shift.” Boden nodded.

“Thanks, Chief!” Severide nodded and climbed into the back of the ambo. Boden shut the doors and knocked twice on the back, indicating to Dawson at the front that she can leave the scene.

The ambo’s siren turned on and Dawson started towards Med. Brett was working on Sarah in the back, attaching the sensors to her chest. The monitor turned on, beeping softly along to her heartbeat. Severide held Sarah’s hand in his.

“We are 10 minutes out.” Dawson called back.

“She’s stable for now.” Brett announced, but Watson was still not breathing by herself.

“Is she going to be okay?” Severide asked between two coughs, finally feeling like his voice was not going to fail him.

“There’s a nasty cut on her head and her lung needs time to heal, but she’ll be fine.” Brett smiled at Kelly “Do you know her?”

“You could say that.” he smiled as the memories of the day before flashed into his mind, but seeing the look on Brett’s face, he elaborated, “She’s NCIS Special Agent Sarah Watson. She came from Washington on an assignment and got in touch with Boden and me for some help with a couple of arson cases.”

Brett noticed the gauze on Watson’s arm.

“What happened?” she pointed at the charred gauze.

“You remember the shooting from a few days ago?”

“At the McCormick? Yeah.”

“She was there and she got hit. It was a graze, I patched her up but I insisted she get it looked at. I doubt she ever did though.” he looked at her with such admiration that it was breaking Brett’s heart. Before she could say anything, the heart monitor started rapidly beeping then settled on a constant beep.

“Damn it!” Brett jumped up, reaching for the defibrillator “Start the CPR.” she shouted at Severide who was in shock for a few seconds than stood up and stepped in to help. Brett quickly set up the defibrillator.

“Charging at 100.” she pulled back Severide “Clear.” she pushed a button, delivering a shock to Sarah’s heart. The heart monitor’s sound changed for a second then went back to the numbing beep.

“Charging at 200.” she had to stop Severide again from reaching out to Sarah “Clear.” she pushed the same button, delivering another round of shock to Sarah’s heart. The beep stopped for a second then came back along with the rhythmical lines on the monitor.

“She’s back.” Brett sighed, sitting back down with Severide. Severide clutched Sarah’s hand again in his, one single tear rolling down on his cheek. Memories of his previous girlfriend, Anna, came rushing to his mind. He lost her almost a year ago when she succumbed to cancer. She had a DNR agreement, which meant she was not to be resuscitated in case of death. He was on the floor for quite some time afterwards, but with the help of his friends, he regained his strength. He was not ready to go down the wormhole again. He barely knew Sarah but he felt a connection he only felt with Anna before. He was not ready to let her go.

***

The rest of 51 finished putting out the fire at Watson’s house and were in overhaul when a taxi stopped in the street, a young man rushing towards the house.

“Sir, you can’t go in there.” Boden could barely stop him.

“I… I live here.” Torres could barely speak “Oh my God. Sarah?!”

“Who are you?” Boden still had to stand in front of him to keep him from running inside.

“Uhm, I’m… Special Agent Nick Torres.” he pulled out his badge “NCIS.”

Boden took a step back.

“NCIS? Just like Agent Watson?”

“Yeah. She’s my partner. Now what the hell happened?” Torres demanded answers.

“We don’t know yet. But our expert will lead the investigation. Agent Watson is on her way to Chicago Med…”

“Your expert? That Severide or whatever his name is? He’s been helping her all right.”

Boden was about to give Torres his piece of mind when one of his firefighters, Christopher Herrmann announced on the radio,

“Chief! We found an empty can of lighter fluid just outside a broken window. I think we’ll need OFI and PD here.”

“Copy that, Herrmann.” Boden looked back at Torres “I believe the arsonist Agent Watson was pursuing found her, before she could find them.” with that, he took to his radio requesting PD and OFI personnel at scene.

***

Severide was sitting in the waiting room at Chicago Med, a mask on his nose and mouth that was attached to a bag of oxygen. His friend Will Halstead, a great doctor at Med ordered him after hearing him cough. He had been sitting there for some time now, anxious to hear any news. He was not good at waiting, he was about to rush into the ER to find Sarah himself when Will came out the door.

“Ah, good. You are still on oxygen.” he smiled.

“How’s she?” Severide tore off the mask and Will’s smile slowly faded.

“She’s fine, for now. She’s breathing on her own again, we treated her burns, nothing serious. But she is still unconscious.” Will motioned to Severide to follow him and Kelly jumped up quicker than he should have and it took a few seconds to steady himself.

“That’s why you still need that oxygen.” Will pointed at the bag and Severide grimaced.

“If I put it back on, will you allow me to see her?” he groaned and Will nodded – so Kelly complied.

“Now, as I was saying. She is still unconscious. We found a nasty cut on her head; it looks like someone pushed her into something with sharp edges. As bad as this sounds, her lungs are in better condition because she was barely breathing at the time.”

Severide followed Halstead through the maze of Med’s ER then they finally stopped in front of a room. Will nodded towards the room and smiled softly.

“She needs to rest, and so do you, by the way. But you can stay with her. For now.”

Severide thanked him and walked into her room. She looked so peaceful, like she was sleeping and she could wake up at any moment just from the smallest noise. He plopped down into an armchair next to her bed, still breathing from the oxygen mask. The fresh oxygen made wonders to his lungs and his mind. He took his time to look at her. An oxygen mask was placed on her as well; she was tucked in neatly, with both of her arms out of the covers, bandages covering them and an IV line running from her left hand. She had a small gauze on her head as well. He inched closer with the chair and took her right hand into his left and he had no intention of letting it go.

**_to be continued_ **


	9. Up in Flames

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had a long week, so it took me longer to write this, but here you go. Enjoy! :)

Several hours later Severide awoke to footsteps. He was still in the same armchair in Watson’s hospital room. He looked up and saw Will Halstead leaving. He sighed, pulling off his mask and discarding it on the floor. Sarah’s was gone to, replaced by small tubes providing her with fresh oxygen. He was about to take her hand in his again when Nick Torres stormed into the room.

“Ugh, it’s you again.” Torres said with such disgust in his voice and he wasn’t even hiding.

“Agent Torres.” a similar hint of disgust could be heard from Kelly’s voice as well.

“You can go now. She’s in protective custody.” Torres said, sitting down in a chair at the door.

“I’m just dandy right where I am.” Kelly said, pulling out his phone, checking it for messages and calls. He had quite a few from his friends at 51. They sat there in silence for almost 10 minutes when Torres’ phone started buzzing. He looked at the caller ID and stepped out of the room to take the call.

“Boss.” Kelly heard his hushed voice, trying to keep it low and failing at it “I got it handled. It’s the same son of a bitch she has been after.” a long pause “She’ll pull through.” an even longer pause “Yes, Gibbs. I’m working with the Intelligence unit here, I’ll let you know if anything changes.”

Kelly couldn’t hear the rest of the conversation as Torres took off. He was about to relax and try to get some more sleep when Detective Antonio Dawson stepped into the room.

“Severide.” Dawson smiled and they shook hands.

“Antonio.” after shaking hands Dawson walked back and closed the door.

“I can’t seem to shake this Torres guy, he is a real pain in my ass.” Antonio sighed, sitting down into the same chair Torres was sitting in minutes ago.

“You got a couple of minutes before he comes back.” Kelly nodded towards the closed door “You got anything at the scene?”

“Yeah, Intelligence is working with OFI at the scene. Herrmann found a can of lighter fluid outside, near a broken window. OFI managed to pull prints from it, we are running it now. The bastard didn’t wear gloves.” Antonio said as he looked through his notes.

“That can surviving the fire? That was never his intention.” Kelly shook his head “I saw the bastards previous work. Not a shred of evidence was left to tie anyone to the scenes.”

“Well, Watson here fought back.” Dawson said, taking a good look at her “How’s she, by the way?”

“She’s still out, doctors found a nasty cut on her head; Will said it looks like someone pushed her into something with sharp edges.” Severide took her hands in his, not caring anymore who sees it.

“She’s a tough one.” Dawson smiled “With any luck on that fingerprint she might as well have shot a snap of the guy. That Torres assured me NCIS will handle security around but I’m posting two unis outside. I don’t want no surprises anymore.” Dawson said, standing up and he was just about to leave when Torres got back in with even more questions.

***

Back at the NCIS headquarters, everybody was busy running down names and whatever piece of evidence they had. One of their own was injured – they did not take that lightly.

“Does anybody have anything?” Gibbs’ voice rang out in the otherwise quiet office space, slamming his palm on his desk.

“Chicago OFI found a can of lighter fluid outside, got prints on it, they are running it now. They are sending it over so we can run it through the federal databases.” McGee explained, not even looking up from his monitor.

“Torres said CPD couldn’t find squat at the McCormick shooting scene. The guy who Sarah shot was not in any system. Gun was filed off, crime lab is working on it.” Bishop announced after hanging up the phone.

“So we got squat?” Gibbs’ anger level was rising dangerously.

“I just got an update from Chicago Med.” Agent Reeves said, standing up from a desk in the bullpen next to Gibbs’ team “Watson is out of the ICU, she’s breathing on her own but she’s yet to wake up.”

“Somebody get me something. And soon!” Gibbs barked then slammed his desk’s drawer shut and headed down to Abby Sciuto’s crime lab.

By the time Gibbs got down, Abby was already working her magic with the fingerprint they received from Chicago OFI.

“Tell me you got something, Abbs.” Gibbs said, his anger level down a notch.

“I’m running the prints through every database we’ve got. And I’ve been looking through whatever we got from CPD. So far, nothing Gibbs. Literally nothing. The gun’s serial number from the shooting a few days ago? Filed off, or more like, burnt off so badly, the crime lab couldn’t recover anything from it.” she tapped a few keys and pictures showed up on her monitors.

“What am I looking at?” Gibbs was not in the mood the guess.

“Chicago OFI sent over some pictures from Sarah’s house.” she pointed at the kitchen “They said there was a pool of origin, just like in the cases Sarah worked on.” she brought up another picture “This is Sarah’s head injury. They took samples. Doctors at Med say she was most likely pushed into the stairs during struggle.”

“That means there should be evidence of that.”

“Should be, is the operative word, Gibbs. Fire took almost everything downstairs. Didn’t have time to fully engulf the next floor… that’s how Sarah survived.” Abby explained. Before she could elaborate further, her computer announced with two sharp rings that it got a match.

“Who is it?” Gibbs demanded an answer.

“Prints came back as a match to a Kevin Cortez.” Abby read from the screen “Woah.”

“What is it, Abbs?” his voice rushing her.

“He was Navy. Captain, actually. He was with the SEALs.” she fast read his file “He was dishonorably discharged in last September. Not long after he got promoted.”

“His file say why?” Gibbs was halfway towards the door.

“Sealed. Ask McGee.” Abby yelled after him.

***

Torres was about to genuinely yell at Detective Dawson when his phone started ringing. It was McGee with the latest updates.

“Well, looks like we finally know who we are looking for.” Torres sighed, hanging up.

“Care to share?” Severide asked.

“Not like it’s any of your business...” Torres started and Severide jumped up from the armchair, ready to take on the guy when Antonio stepped in front of him.

“But it’s my business, so out with it, Agent Torres.” Dawson pulled out his notepad.

“Name’s Kevin Cortez. He was a captain, dishonorably discharged last September.”

“Sarah caught the first case in October.” Kelly interrupted, getting a nasty look from Nick.

“Now, according to my coworker, Cortez got the boot because he had some gambling problem.”

“Happens to everyone, not exactly a reason for a discharge, right?” Antonio felt like there was a missing piece from the story.

“Yeah, but he got into the drug smuggling business to cover his costs. Now that ain’t exactly on the up and up. To cover his ass, he gave up name connected to the drugs and instead of rotting away in jail he got away with a dishonorable discharge.” Torres shook his head, pinching his nose between his eyes again. He felt another headache coming.

“I’ll brief Voight on this. We are on this.” Dawson said, then shook hands with the guys and left. Torres took a few steps back and forth, rubbing his temple with both hands then turned to Severide.

“I have to check in with the field office. Call me, if anything changes.” he said, handing over his card “Please.” he added before storming out the door. Kelly put the card on the nightstand and sat back into his armchair. It felt comfortable before, his aching body needed a rest but now it felt like the most uncomfortable thing on the planet. He stood up, pacing up and down in the hospital room. He was not one to sit around and do nothing. The waiting always made him crazy. He was about to settle down into that damned armchair when Will Halstead stepped in, ready for another checkup. After examining Watson, he turned to Severide.

“Well?” Kelly urged him.

“All in all, she should be waking up soon. She’s reactive to light, there’s no damage to the brain. She probably has a small concussion, adding that to low oxygen levels forced her into this state. Once her oxygen levels are back to normal she should be waking up.”

“And if she’s not?”

“We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it.” Will said and Kelly hoped that’s a bridge they would never get even in the vicinity of.

“She’s up to 85%, normal levels are between 95 and 100% but considering the damage to her lungs 88-92% should be fine as well.” Will pointed at the monitor behind Severide, which showed the number 85 in green.

“Thanks, Will!” he nodded and sat back down, taking her hands into his again.

After Halstead left, the minutes passed by ever so slowly. Severide kept checking the monitor next to him, waiting for the green number to inch up. When it reached 88% he squeezed her hand, hoping for a sign that she was back. But he got no reaction. The number was up to 92% and nothing happened. He kept squeezing her hand, hoping for the slightest reaction. He was decided to ask for Halstead, so he stood up. He leaned over her, planted a quick kiss on her forehead then on her hand and started for the door.

“Going somewhere?” he heard a faint voice, which made him freeze. He turned around and saw Watson was awake and slightly smiling.

“Oh God. Sarah!” he quickly closed the distance between them, planting another kiss on her forehead, taking her hand back into his. He rested his forehead against her, that sweet scent she was so familiar with was replaced by the smell of smoke. She just noticed he was still in his CFD clothes. Half of his gear was draped on the chair beside her bed.

“You got that son of a bitch?” she asked when he slowly pulled away.

“We have his name. Intelligence and NCIS are on it.” Kelly said, squeezing her hand in his.

“I know I’m in the hospital already, but would you mind not breaking my fingers?” she laughed softly and he loosened his grip on her. That smile, that laugh warmed his heart and he finally allowed himself to smile, allowing himself to believe that the first half of his nightmare was over.

**_to be continued_ **


	10. The Hunt Begins

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's the next chapter and things are not getting any easier for our characters! Enjoy! :)

After the attack on Agent Watson’s life, NCIS called back Rear Admiral Collins to Washington D.C. and put her into protective custody. One less problem he would need to concentrate on, Torres thought. He knew, as soon as Cortez got wind of the fact that Sarah survived, he’d be back for more. Cortez wanted Watson out of the way since she was the only one who could positively ID him at the scene, pouring accelerant and they would have him on multiple charges besides arson – such as, attempted murder of a federal agent.

It has been a quiet week in Chicago, Sarah was recovering rather quickly; she was released from the hospital 4 days after the fire. Torres had brought her a change of clothes the night before after he collected the last few things to survive the fire.

On the fourth day’s morning, Detective Dawson picked Watson up and took her to Firehouse 51 straight away.

“Thanks for the ride, Dawson.” she smiled after getting out of his car “You’ll keep me in the loop?”

“I’ll call you if we have anything solid.” Antonio smiled and drove off towards the police precinct. She started towards the firehouse and when she entered through the door, she bumped into Severide. He hugged her, steadying both of them.

“Hey there.” he grinned, giving her a deep kiss that left her breathless. Before she could answer she heard a whistle from behind Kelly, which made him turn back sharply, still holding onto her with one arm.

“So we finally get to meet the mystery lady.” it was Joe Cruz, a fellow firefighter on Squad, sitting at the table next to the squad truck. Severide took a couple of seconds before he responded.

“Yeah, guys, this is…”

“Hi, I’m Special Agent Sarah Watson.” Sarah said before Kelly could finish his sentence, pulling apart her coat, showing them the badge resting on her belt “NCIS.”

The next 15 minutes were all about introducing Sarah to everybody and Severide never left her side. Finally, they settled into his quarters.

“You are riding with Squad today. I’m not letting you out of my sights more than I have to.” he smiled, squeezing her hand.

“I swear, one of these days, you are going to break my fingers.” she laughed and leaned over to give him a quick kiss. He was about to turn the heat up a notch in there when her phone started ringing. She got a new phone from Torres the day before so she could be reachable.

“I gotta take this.” she sighed and stepped outside his quarters, walking towards the lockers while taking the call. She did not come back in a couple of minutes, so Severide started after her. He found her sitting on one of the benches in the locker room, holding her phone in her hand, staring at the floor.

“What happened?” he asked, sitting down next to her, putting a hand on her thigh.

“It was my boss, from DC.” she took a deep breath “They got another body… the house burnt down. OFI ruled it arson on the first look. Victim is a Navy officer.”

“When did this happen?” he stood up and started pacing up and down behind her.

“Last night. Glenwood, Maryland.”

“I thought Cortez was still here, in Chicago.” Severide finally stopped, looking her in the eye.

“As far as we know, he still is. Which is a huge problem, because this means he is not working alone.” now it was her turn to start pacing. He stepped to her, tried to hug her, thinking that would maybe calm her down. But she wriggled out of his embrace, stepping aside,

“I have to call Dawson.” she said, shaking her head and she started towards the door. Kelly watched her leave and when she was out the door he punched into the nearest locker.

“What did that locker do to you, Severide?” he heard the familiar voice of Matt Casey.

“There’s been another arson case, back in Maryland. The sicko who attacked Watson? Seems like he has a partner.”

Matt shook his head slowly, he was still wrapping his mind around the whole case.

“Have you guys talked to CPD?”

“Watson’s been in contact with Antonio. I’m pretty sure Intelligence is all over it.” Severide said, his anger slowly subsiding “But I’m pretty sure Cortez is going to take another swing at her.”

“Because Watson can ID him?” Casey asked as they started walking back towards quarters.

“She saw his face and we got his prints. If there’s no witness, the fingerprint will not be enough. He could say someone planted it…”

“Or it could just disappear. I mean, we’ve had missing evidence cases before at CPD.” Casey said “You pay off the right cop and any shred of evidence linking you to the crime is just gone.”

“That’s exactly why Sarah is rolling with us today.” Kelly nodded and they continued their walk into the kitchen to grab a bite and mingle with the rest of the teams.

Sarah was about to walk back inside when the alarm blaring from up high startled her – again –, and it announced a structure fire, calling on all available units at the house. She saw the firefighters running out towards their trucks, pulling on the rest of their gears. She noticed Severide waving at her and she ran up to him. He opened the Squad truck’s door and she climbed in. The ride was short, they were at the scene in under 6 minutes.

Everyone stepped outside their trucks, eyeing the 3 story house in front of them. Smoke was coming out from the upper floors but there was no sign of flames yet.

“Okay, Truck goes in first, do a quick sweep.” Boden barked his orders “Squad, stand by.”

While the firefighters from Truck 81 went inside those on Squad 3 lined up against their truck, waiting for further instructions. Sarah stood next to Severide, eyeing the crowd that was beginning to form around the perimeter the CPD patrolmen created.

“Most arsonists watch their fires, right?” she turned to Severide, who nodded slowly, his head fully in the game, focusing on the upcoming tasks. Watson kept scanning the faces in the crowd, trying her best to make herself remember details about Cortez. When her memory failed her, she checked the last e-mail on her phone from McGee, which included a picture of Cortez. She studied his features then focused her eyes on the crowd again.

She didn’t notice him first, but after studying his photo, her eyes settled on him at the edge of the crowd, both of his hands in his coat’s pockets. He kept looking at the building then at the first responders on scene.

“There’s no fire, Chief.” Casey’s voice rang out from the radio on Boden’s shoulder “It’s just a big ass smoke machine.”

Her heart skipped a beat.

“It’s a trap.” she muttered and when she looked at the suspicious guy at the edge of the crowd again he was pulling out his hands from his pockets, aiming a gun right at them.

“It’s a trap!” she yelled, reaching for her gun, which she was relieved to find in its place after Dawson gave it back to her that morning “Everybody, on the ground now!”

While the people nearest to Cortez started screaming at the view of a gun and the panic ran through the crowd, the firefighters did not move an inch.

“I said, on the ground. NOW!” Sarah yelled, hoping it was not too late. The firefighters followed her aim and only started ducking when they noticed the guy with the gun. Severide was his usual stubborn self, trying to talk Sarah to get into cover as well. She pushed Severide to the ground – which took all her strength – right at the same time when a shot rang out from Cortez’s gun. She felt the bullet wiz by her and she let herself fall to the ground next to Severide. She quickly checked herself and after finding no bullet holes she jumped up and ran after the three police officers chasing Cortez. She heard Boden yelling her name but she was focused on getting that sick Cortez into custody. They needed him alive to give up his partner.

They followed Cortez into a nearby alley, the police officers ducking into cover as Cortez shot back at them. Sarah stopped for a second behind an officer, and when Cortez stopped shooting she took off after him. It took all of her strength and stamina to keep going. She spent the last three days in a hospital bed, she knew she was in no condition to run a marathon and her body would probably punish her later for running this, but she had adrenaline on her side now. Cortez was way ahead of her but she kept following. He stopped at the end of the alley, aimed at her and let three bullets fly. She ducked behind a dumpster, but she was not fast enough. One bullet tore through her shoulder. Thanks to the adrenaline cursing through her veins she stood up, took aim and let one single bullet fly from her gun. She aimed at Cortez’s leg and her bullet hit its intended target. He fled on foot but at least they’d have a blood trail to follow. She stayed at the dumpster, catching her breath, when she heard a car speeding down the alley, skidding to a halt next to her. The window rolled down and Dawson was at the passenger seat.

“I hit him in his leg. He’ll be leaving a hell of a blood trail up the street.” she pointed towards the end of the street. Dawson jumped out of the car and after he shut the door Voight sped away, with another police car right after him. Dawson took a good look at Watson.

“You are hit.” he said, pulling away her coat “Come on, I’ll walk you back.”

“Get that son of a bitch.” Sarah said angrily then allowed Dawson to put pressure on her wound and they walked back slowly to the original crime scene. The perimeter was further away than when she took off and not much of a crowd was left after that shooting. Antonio walked her back to ambo 61.

“Gabby!” he yelled out for his sister who was kneeling next to a firefighter Sarah couldn’t see. Gabby Dawson ran over to them after hearing her brother’s voice.

“Oh my God.” she gasped, looking at Sarah whose coat was now drenched in her blood near her right shoulder.

“I can’t seem to catch a break.” Watson joked but winced as soon as Gabby tried to remove her coat.

“Okay, this is going to hurt, but I need to take a good look and patch you up.”

Gabby was right, it hurt like hell and Watson had to look away to keep herself from passing out. Antonio rushed back towards the alley, on the phone with his teammates.

“You are somewhat lucky.” Gabby sighed “It’s a through and through and the bleeding’s not too bad either. Bullet seemed to miss everything vital.” she continued as she patched Watson up. She was putting on her final touches when Watson noticed a couple of firefighters pulling up somebody onto their feet from between the two trucks.

“Anybody else got hit?” she asked Dawson.

“Nothing serious.” Gabby smiled and as she stepped into the ambulance to grab another set of gauze Sarah could finally see who was being pulled up from the ground. Kelly Severide. She jumped off the gurney and ran towards them.

“Severide?” her voice was fully of worry which made Cruz and Casey step aside immediately. She looked at Severide’s torn gear. His coat was torn up on his left arm and was slightly tainted red “Oh my God, are you hit?” she started pulling off his coat with one hand.

“Sarah, I’m fine.” Severide stopped her, taking her hand into his “It’s just a graze.” he smiled but when he looked at her his smile quickly faded “But you are really hit.”

“Ah, there you are.” Gabby appeared behind her “I was not finished with that wound dressing.”

“We can finish on the way to the hospital.” Brett nodded towards the ambo “Both of you, get inside.” he pointed at Severide and Watson.

“I’m fine.” Sarah shook her head “I need to go after Cortez. Intelligence needs to know we need him alive.”

She was about to pull back on her coat and start walking back towards the alley when Severide grabbed her and pulled her into his arms. She shot him a deadly look.

“Look, Brett and Dawson? They are not asking twice.” Kelly grinned and walked to the ambulance with Watson in his arms.

**_to be continued_ **

 


	11. Wanted: Alive

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Things have been busy at work, but here you go. Things are getting complicated for everyone at Firehouse 51, the CFD's Intelligence Unit and NCIS! Enjoy! :)

Detective Antonio Dawson was running back to his team after handing off Agent Watson to Ambo 61. The rest of the CPD Intelligence unit were on foot, following the blood trail Cortez was leaving behind as he fled. The trail led them to an industrial site two blocks from the crime scene and it ended at a heavy door of an abandoned warehouse.

“5021 George, be advised. Suspect fled into an abandoned warehouse two blocks north of the original crime scene. We need a perimeter set up and roll additional units to our location. Plain clothes officers in pursuit. Offender is armed and dangerous, but bleeding from a leg injury.” Detective Jay Halstead talked into his radio, while aiming his gun in his other hand at the door.

_“Copy that, 5021. Rolling additional units.”_

Dawson arrived just in time for the breach. Halstead, his partner detective Hailey Upton, officers Kevin Atwater and Kim Burgess stormed the front door with Dawson following them closely. Meanwhile Sergeant Hank Voight, detective Alvin Olinsky and officer Adam Ruzek breached a side door. They turned off their loud radios and used their earpieces instead.

“Cortez is needed alive.” Dawson whispered as they slowly walked forward in the huge warehouse’s ground floor. It felt like a maze, doors leading to offices and locker rooms. Checking all of these slowed down their approach.

“I got blood. Leading into the factory area.” Burgess called, pointing at a red double door which had a yellow sign above: assembly lines.

They went inside at the same time with Voight’s team and they communicated with hand signals. They fanned out, moving silently in between the assembly lines which had stood untouched for quite a while.

A single shot rang out, hitting a machine which made Burgess drop to the ground. Antonio was right behind her, he crouched and snuck over to her.

“Burgess, you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m not hit.” she gulped, sitting up “Shot came from my right side.”

“I got eyes.” Ruzek’s voice rang in their ears “Cortez is headed towards the supervisor’s office above, at the north end of the factory floor.”

He got a ‘ _copy that_ ’ response from everyone and they all started moving towards Cortez, staying behind covers most of the time. Halstead was the closest so he started climbing the stairs to the office the minute Cortez closed the door upstairs. They all moved into position, aiming their guns upstairs.

***

Watson was sitting on the edge of a hospital bed in the ER. Dr. Halstead was stitching up her right shoulder and she clenched her left fist in frustration and anger.

“All due respect, doc. I should be out there, arresting that son of a bitch.” Sarah made her argument for the 5th time since she was brought in, somewhat involuntarily.

“I heard you the first time as well, but not until I stitch you up.” he continued closing up her wound “Plus, you’ll need a new coat and shirt.” he looked at the bloody clothes on the floor. Watson only had her jeans and a blue CFD tank top on, which she got from Gabby after the ambo ride.

“Yeah, well, I’ll need to buy some new clothes because every other piece of clothing I brought here got turned into ash when that sick son of a…” Halstead shot her a look “Sorry, doc. When the arsonist set the house on fire.”

“You are on some unlucky streak.” Halstead shook his head as he put down the needle and searched for gauze and tape. She looked up and then she saw him, standing in the doorway, eyeing her and smiling from ear to ear.

“What? Like you’ve never got stitches.” Sarah smiled and Severide stepped into the small room. Halstead looked at him and let out a small laugh that sounded more like a snort.

“Oh, he’s got his fair share of stitches.” when Sarah looked at Will questioningly he just added “Trust me.”

“Yeah, contrary to popular belief, I’m not invincible.” Kelly smiled and walked up to her. He pulled up his torn CFD shirt on his arm “In fact, I got five stitches for this bad boy.”

“I’m on twelve, if I counted right.” she winked at him and he laughed.

Halstead finished her up and started moving out, but he turned back from the doorway.

“If this is gonna be a contest, my money’s on Agent Watson.” he smiled then disappeared into the bustling crowd of the ER of Chicago Med hospital.

“That’s not nice!” she protested while she climbed down from the bed.

“Honestly? I’m off shift for the next 48 hours, so he’s probably right.” he grinned and she playfully hit his stomach. Which felt no more than a pinch to him, but it gave him a chance to grab her left arm and pull her close to him. Close enough for a passionate kiss.

***

Meanwhile, back at the factory, the Intelligence unit was ready to capture Cortez. Halstead was right at the door and waited for Voight’s signal to breach. Voight stepped forward, out in the open from behind an assembly machine and called out.

“Come out, Cortez! Let us take you in and then we’ll get you a nice deal on the table.”

Cortez looked out the window of the supervisor’s office.

“There’re no deals for people like me!” he yelled back and broke out the window with the back of his gun then started shooting at Voight and his team. This was Jay’s signal. He kicked in the door, yelling ‘freeze’ and ‘drop your weapon’ at Cortez, but he just turned around and continued shooting, now at Jay. Halstead let out two bullets before ducking into cover. Both bullets hit their intended target: Cortez dropped to the floor.

Dawson ran up the stairs, gun ahead of him. When he stepped into the office he let out a long Spanish curse. Halstead was trying to stop the bleeding but Cortez was already lying in a puddle of his own blood, his eyes closed, not breathing anymore.

“We needed him alive!” Antonio yelled, punching the door next to him.

“He shot at me!” Jay yelled back “I aimed for his hand but he jumped… in the wrong direction.”

“Crap!” Antonio cursed again and stepped outside the office, walking down the stairs. Voight came in after him, taking in the scene.

“Well, that’s unfortunate.” he sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose “Roll the crime lab here, we are going back to deep dive on this guy.”

***

Watson and Severide was walking out of Chicago Med when her phone started ringing. She had his turnout coat on as all her bloody clothes went into a medical waste bin. She fished out her phone from her jeans’ pocket and after looking at the caller ID she quickly answered.

“Dawson, please tell me you have good news.” Sarah smiled, hoping for the best news of the day. They kept walking ahead, Severide watching her intently. She suddenly stopped in her tracks.

“What?!” she felt her knees wobble but stood still and Severide was right next to her to keep her standing if her knees ever decided to give out.

“You cannot be serious!” she said then hung up “This has got to be some sick joke.”

“What happened?” Severide asked, trying to look into her eyes but she couldn’t face him “Sarah?”

“It was Antonio.” she said finally, then she took a deep breath “Cortez is dead.”

Severide did not know what to say, communication was not his strong suit, so he put an arm around her waist and waited for Watson to finish.

“We needed him alive. He was working with someone!” she wriggled out of his embrace and took a few steps forward, but Severide was right behind her.

“I… I have to find a hotel to stay in, you know, for the next couple of days. I’m pretty sure I’ll be called back to DC soon.” she sighed, looking down, slowly shaking her head. Severide stepped in front of her, lifting her chin up so she had to look at him. He saw tears glinting in her eyes, threatening to fall.

“Stay with me.” he smiled and now it was her turn to fail at communicating. For a couple of seconds she just stood there, looking into his eyes, trying to read him.

“Are you…”

“Couple of days or weeks, doesn’t matter. Stay with me.” he smiled, bringing her closer to him.

“Don’t you have a roommate?” she spoke finally.

“I’m sure she won’t mind.” he laughed and leaned in for a quick kiss. She rested her head on his chest, listening to his steady heartbeat as he hugged her close to him. They stood there for a few minutes, then he pulled away and looked into her eyes.

“So, what do you say?” his eyes were bluer than she remembered and she almost got lost in them again.

“Okay, fine.” she allowed herself to smile again.

“I want to hear you say it.” he teased.

“I’ll stay with you.” she laughed and pulled him in by the hem of his CFD sweatshirt for a quick kiss.

“But before going home, we need to swing by the firehouse first.” Watson said as she stepped to the curb and hailed a taxi.

“Why?” Severide looked at her, confused.

“Gabby promised me a change of clothes. As you must have noticed, I don’t have too much to wear.”

“That’s not a problem for me.” he smiled and pulled her in for another kiss. They only stepped apart when the taxi rolled up next to them.

**_to be continued_ **


	12. Slow Burning

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it took so long, work has been insane. Enjoy! :)

Severide and Watson walked into Firehouse 51 hand-in-hand, and since it was still the middle of the second shift’s workday Severide walked up to Casey while Watson walked towards the locker rooms to find Gabby. Dawson was pulling out a few pieces of clothes onto the bench behind her.

“Gabby?” Watson called from the doorway. Dawson turned around, flashing a huge smile. Watson walked up to her and looked at the piles of clothes on the bench.

“Oh yeah, these are a few things I picked out for you.” Dawson smiled “Grab a few and get dressed. You can’t stay in that coat forever.”

“Severide wouldn’t mind.” Watson laughed as she picked up a CFD tank top and gasped at the sight. It was a pretty low cut top.

“He won’t mind that either.” Gabby winked and threw black jeans at Watson “You are welcome to take a quick shower as well. Might freshen you up.”

“Well, if you can lend me a towel and some supplies, I won’t say no to a refreshing shower.” Sarah smiled and after collecting the supplies from Gabby she picked up the new clothes as well and headed to the showers.

The warm water felt good to her body, soothing her aching back. She washed her hair as well. Just as she was finishing up she heard the blaring alarm announcing a building on fire, calling all units to the scene. She walked out of the shower, the towel still wrapped tightly around her.  She quickly started getting dressed, letting her wet hair fall down her shoulders. The top and jeans she got from Gabby were just the right size. She was brushing her hair when she heard a door open and close in the background. The steps were getting closer and then she heard a high whistle.

“I guess, I have to thank Dawson for that.” she heard Severide’s voice from behind her. She looked up in the mirror and he was only a few steps behind her, eyeing her top to bottom. She didn’t turn around, she just kept brushing her hair and kept eye contact with him through the mirror.

“You know, everybody is out on a call…” he smiled, stepping right behind her. She put down her brush and waited until his hands were on her hips, hooked into her jeans.

“We could still get caught.” Watson smiled and Severide gently spun her around in his arms until she was facing him. One of his hands cupped the back of her neck, the other still rested on her waist as he pressed his lips to hers.

“Doesn’t that just make it more fun?” he laughed as he traced a fingertip along the side of her waist, down the outside of her thigh. She grabbed the back of his neck and slammed his lips to hers. After a few minutes of intensive kissing, she quickly slipped out of his embrace and stepped to the side.

“I have a couple of things planned for today.” she smiled and he started for her, trying to grab her waist again, going in for another kiss.

“Like what?” he smirked.

“Like paying a visit to Halstead.” he stopped in his tracks, raising an eyebrow at her “And the rest of the Intelligence team.” she added smiling and put a hand on his chest to keep him at arm’s length.

“And what am I supposed to do?” he asked, throwing his hands in the air.

“You are welcome to join me on the way.” she smiled, grabbed him by his shirt, pulled him back to her and kissed him. They both smiled into their kiss.

***

Watson felt all her energy rush back when she entered the police station at District 21. She was ready to storm the place, demanding immediate answers on where their investigation was at whether Severide realized her plan or not, she wanted back in the game. She stepped up to Desk Sergeant Trudy Platt, when Severide was still running up the stairs, trying to catch up with her.

“Sergeant Platt?” Watson smiled, extending a hand over the table “I’m Special Agent Sarah Watson, NCIS.”

Trudy shook her hand, but didn’t say a word, waiting for Sarah to continue.

“I’m here to see Sergeant Voight.”

“Does he know you are looking for him?”

“Well, no…”

“Take a seat then.” Platt pointed at the bench opposite her desk and that’s when she saw Severide coming up.

“Hey, Trudy.” he flashed a charming smile and stopped Watson from doing or saying anything they both would regret.

“Lieutenant Severide.” Trudy smiled “Can I help you?”

“Yeah…” he hesitated a nanosecond “We’d like to see Voight, or actually anyone from Intelligence would be fine.” he smiled and looked at Watson then at Platt.

“Dawson and Halstead are up there. Go on, I’ll buzz you up.” Trudy gave them a short smile then went back to the enormous amount of paper she had in front of her. Severide thanked her then gently nudged Sarah in the right direction. Rushing her towards the entrance of the Intelligence team’s workplace.

“What the hell was that?” Watson looked at him, raising an eyebrow, keeping her voice low so only he would hear.

“Platt is… unique. You’ll get used to her.” he smiled and when he heard the lock buzzing he opened up the door for her and they walked up to the bullpen of the Intelligence team.

Dawson and Halstead was putting together a board for all the evidence they had so far. The two detectives didn’t hear them coming up and before Severide could stop her, Sarah stormed into the middle of the bullpen.

“You had to shoot him, right?!” she yelled, causing Dawson and Halstead to jump back, turning around quickly.

“Sarah…” Severide wanted to try and calm her down but she was furious.

“He was our ONLY lead!” she pointed a finger at Halstead.

“And he was shooting at us.” Halstead was ready to defend his actions, raising his voice.

“Like every other bad guy does! I can’t believe you could not bring him in alive.” she argued, stepping closer, her finger still pointed at Halstead and her other hand was clenched into a fist. Jay was about to argue when Dawson stepped in between them.

“Okay, let’s take a deep breath here.” he looked at Sarah and then at Severide. She took a step back and sat on the corner of a desk behind her.

“First of all, this is NCIS Special Agent Sarah Watson.” Dawson talked looking at Jay, then turned to Sarah “And this is Detective Jay Halstead.”

“Halstead?” she looked surprised and looked him up and down “Okay, I can see some similarities.”

Jay looked at her, confused.

“Will treated her at Med, twice since she came to Chicago.” Severide offered an explanation and Jay finally smiled.

“Well, it was time to meet the better looking brother.” Jay smiled and winked at her. Severide instinctively took a step closer to her and put a hand on her shoulder.

“How about you tell us if you have anything useful.” Severide smiled and nodded towards the evidence board.

“Actually, not much.” Dawson stepped back next to the board “We are deep diving your arsonist, trying to find connections in his life.”

“Plus, we are working with your DC offices,” Halstead continued “and they are trying to connect the victims and the potential list of victims to see if they can pinpoint the possible motive the arsonists have for setting them on fire.”

Sarah eyed the pictures and words on the evidence board. Kevin Cortez was looking right back at her from the board, the team pinned up his Navy photo.

“Cortez.” she whispered and it finally hit her “Kevin Cortez was the arsonist.” she stood up, walking to the board she pointed at his picture “But we had a victim with the same name. Captain Cortez.” she racked her brain for more information “She was killed before the fire, broken neck. The perp broke her neck before lighting up her home.”

“You think there could be a connection between them?” Dawson looked surprised.

“Could be. We could all use something to work on, no?” Sarah smiled.

“You got that right.” Halstead nodded and sat down to his computer, typing away.

“I’m going to call McGee, he can find out more about Captain Cortez faster.” Sarah offered and walked back to the stairs and pulled out her phone and called McGee.

While Sarah was talking to Agent McGee, Severide stepped to the evidence board, looking through every info the team had collected so far.

“By the way, sorry for bursting in.” he said, turning around “She’s been on edge ever since that creep tried to kill her.” Severide watched her body tensing and he had a feeling she was not getting good news from DC.

“Oh, don’t worry. I’d be on edge too if anyone tried to set me on fire.” Halstead shook his head “We’ve got nothing on his credit card, the last time he used it was back in DC two weeks ago.”

“Did he buy something?” Severide walked back to the desk Sarah was leaning against earlier.

“The last purchase was a bus ticket for $97. The bus left DC at 4:40pm from Union Station and arrived the next day at 10:30am to Greyhound Station here. Then he emptied his account at an ATM at the station.”

“How much did he withdraw?” Dawson asked while he wrote up the most important information onto their board. Halstead clicked and typed away.

“$5,500.”

“That’s a lot.” Severide said and as he turned around to catch a glimpse of Sarah she was already standing next to him. She smiled at him then turned to the detectives.

“I have some news.”

“Good or bad?” Halstead asked, standing up from his desk.

“Both? Neither?” she sighed “Captain Amanda Cortez was our third victim. She was 45 and a senior officer with…” she held a small pause “Navy Intelligence.”

“That’s not good.” Dawson shook his head.

“The project she was working on was kept under wraps and only her brother knew about it…”

“Kevin?” Severide interrupted her and Watson nodded before continuing.

“He was Captain, leading a SEAL team who were supposed to take part in the project but before the trial could start the higher ups decided it was a conflict of interest for Kevin to work with his sister so they pulled his team out of the deal. He started spiraling from then on and ultimately his gambling was his demise.”

“Okay, does that give us motive?” Dawson tried piecing it all together.

“Well, it gives some sort of motive for killing his sister.” Halstead said, scratching his head “But what about the other victims?”

“And that list?” Severide remembered Watson telling him about the potential list of targets. They stood there in silence for a couple of minutes.

“We need a list of names from that project.” Watson said finally “The victims could have been all working together on it.”

“Wouldn’t NCIS know that already?” Dawson asked pinching his nose.

“Not necessary.” Sarah said, sending a text message to McGee to get her the list “There are top secret projects even we need special access for. This might have been one of those.”

Severide watched Sarah typing away her text and couldn’t help but smile.

***

Special Agent Tim McGee was sitting at his desk when his phone rang, announcing a new text message. It was from Watson, asking for a list of names from the project Captain Cortez was working on.

“Boss. Watson needs a list of names from the Vertigo project.” McGee said when his boss stood up from his desk.

“Get it for her.” was the short and simple answer of Gibbs.

“I don’t have the clearance for it.” McGee said as he opened the projects files.

“Who has?” Gibbs asked as he stood next to McGee.

“Probably Director Vance.”

“I’ll talk to him.” Gibbs said and started upstairs.

Before McGee could continue his search into Kevin Cortez’ life his phone started ringing again. Another text message. This time it came from NCIS. Another house burned down and the firefighters found a charred body inside. The house belonged to the Navy so they notified NCIS. McGee forwarded the message to Watson before grabbing his gear and heading to the garage to meet with his colleagues and go to the crime scene.

***

Sarah’s phone rang when she was about to leave the Intelligence team’s bullpen with Severide. She opened the text and stopped immediately, gasping.

“What is it?” Severide asked, worried, ready to catch her if her knees started giving out again.

“There’s been another fire.” she said turning around so that Halstead and Dawson could hear it too “Another fire at a Navy issued house. DCFD found a charred body inside.”

Watson walked back and sat down to the nearest desk and buried her head in her hands, taking a few deep breaths. Severide stood beside her, but he had no idea what to do.

“Do they have an ID?” Dawson asked, breaking the silence in the room.

“I probably don’t have to tell you how long it takes to identify burnt victims…” Severide started.

“Okay, well, do they know who lived there?” Halstead tried to diffuse the situation.

Sarah looked up, opening the text she got from McGee again.

“Navy issued the house to Navy Captain Samantha McKenzie.” her phone started ringing just as she finished reading the text. The screen read Torres. She sighed and answered. Her colleague called about the newest developments in the case. Torres was in the Chicago NCIS field office so he ran the victim’s name as soon as he received it. Sarah thanked him for the update then turned to the three men waiting to hear from her.

“Captain McKenzie was the leader of the SEAL team that finally took part in the project.” she explained and Antonio started writing it up onto their board.

“This must mean the others were part of that project too, right?” Severide asked “But now that Cortez is dead, who is setting the fires?”

“Would have been nice to ask him…” Sarah murmured and Halstead shot her a look.

“We need to find something from him, a laptop, a computer, maybe his phone will shine a light onto his contacts.” Antonio said “Halstead, deep dive his phone records. Go back months, see if you can get the GPS info as well. We need to find a place he frequented.”

“On it.”

With that Halstead and Dawson started their deep dive while Watson and Severide left the station.

 

**_to be continued_ **


	13. Vertigo

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so sorry for the long wait, but I hope you'll enjoy this chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it :)

Severide and Watson drove back to Kelly’s apartment since he was still off shift for another 2 and a half days. He let her go into the apartment first. She looked around the open space, noticing some small touches of a woman in the design. Some flowers here and there, a few colorful pillows. She smiled as he took off her coat, then she walked into the kitchen to make them some coffee. Severide followed her, after hanging up their coats. The silence was deafening.

“Sarah…” he started and his heart skipped a beat when he saw the devastated look on her face.

“I’m losing hope… or faith… or whatever you want to call it.” she gave him a weak smile and he stepped to her, hugging her from behind.

“Tell me how to help.” he whispered and planted a small kiss on her neck.

“Well,” she sighed and eased into his hug “distracting me wouldn’t be such a terrible idea.” she smiled and he pulled her closer to him and planted another kiss on her neck. She turned around, looking into his eyes as Kelly caressed her cheek, a small smile playing on his lips.

“At your service, Ma’am.” he grinned and she brushed her lips against his and Severide instantly captured it with a kiss. He tilted her chin and kissed her jaw, then ever so slowly moved down to her neck, which made her gasp. Sarah’s fingers curled around his shirt, tugging him closer and Kelly took a breath to study her face with a warm smile.

“Keep saying things like that… and I won’t be able to keep my hands to myself.” she smiled and Kelly grabbed her face, kissing her harder. He guided her steps towards his bedroom as her hands tangled in his short hair, desperately trying to keep him close. While having sex in the kitchen wasn’t exactly a bad idea, Stella could have dropped in for something, at any time of the day, so he decided against pushing her onto the kitchen isle.

By the time they reached his bedroom, his fingers were tangled in her hair too, then they both landed on the bed, Severide on top of Sarah. He removed her clothes desperately, exploring every inch of her skin with his hands and mouth. Kelly pressed a searing kiss on her belly before looking up, a burning question in his eye. Watson’s lust filled eyes gave him the answer he needed, so he used his teeth to tug her underwear, grazing her inner thigh, all the way to her ankles. She sighed, ready to tear off his clothes, when Severide’s mouth settled on where she wanted him most and her back arched off the bed. Sarah’s fingers slipped into his hair, the other gripped the sheet. His tongue and hand worked wonders and soon she was calling out his name, panting heavily.

While she relaxed, he quickly took off his clothes and her chest tightened with anticipation at the sight of his chiseled body. She smiled, looking him up and down and with a slight grin he lowered his body in one quick motion, his fingers working towards her second release.

Sarah pulled him closer to herself, biting into his left shoulder to keep herself from crying out. He winced at first, then she remembered: the bullet grazed his left arm; so she showered him in small kisses from where she bit into him to his graze wound. He started to pick up the pace, both of them panting and moaning. She felt another wave of pleasure rushing over her, stars dancing behind her eyelids and she let herself fall free with him moaning his final pleasure moments after. He settled down next to her, hugging her from behind, planting small kisses on her neck and shoulder.

“How’s that for distraction?” he grinned.

“Worked wonders.” she smiled and eased into his embrace, letting herself fall asleep. He watched her breathing get back to a steady rhythm while she fell asleep and he soon allowed himself to relax too, following her into the land of dreams.

***

When she woke up, she could smell the smoke in the air. It was dark, way too dark for her to see and the smoke started to irritate her eyes anyway. She got down to all four, trying to establish where she was.

“Kelly!” she tried calling out in between coughs. She tried to reach a wall so that she could find a way out. Wherever she moved it seemed like an endless hall, no walls, just the smoke around her. She pulled off her T-shirt and covered her mouth and nose with it, making it a tiny bit easier for her to breath. When her hands finally found a door she grabbed the handle and tore it open. She fell onto her back immediately. The room on the other end of the door was on fire, flames engulfing the whole place. Although the fire shone some light in her way, she could barely keep her eyes open. She started crawling back towards where she came from, hoping to escape the fire. But it was getting harder and harder to breathe.

“Severide!” she tried calling out one more time but no answer came. _This is it_ , she thought. _This is how it all ends_. She slumped down next to a wall and tried to keep her breathing steady. With opening the door, the fire started moving towards her. With her last bit of strength she continued her way into the dark, hoping to find a window through which she could at least try to get out. She crawled as fast as she could when she finally bumped into a wall. She moved her hands upwards until she caught a windowsill. She gathered all her strength to stand up, rolled her T-shirt around her right hand and broke the window. The sudden income of oxygen fueled up the fire burning behind her and the explosion rocked her world just as she was about to jump out the window, her screams barely coming out as her world slowly faded to black…

“Sarah!” she heard his voice faintly “Sarah!” it grew louder “Wake up!”

She sat up straight, grasping the sheets, panting quickly.

“Hey, hey! It’s okay!” his voice came from right next to her, one hand resting on her shoulder, while his other hand was searching for hers. She tried to slow her breathing back to normal with a few deep breaths as she took in her surroundings. She was still in his bed, only a blanket covering her and he was sitting right next to her, his side of the blanket rolled down to his hips.

“It was just a bad dream.” Severide watched her as reality hit her.

“Oh God.” she sighed and she dropped back onto the bed.

“Are you okay?” he asked, eyeing her with a worried expression on his face.

“Well, it was no fun.” she said, staring at the ceiling, avoiding his eyes. He laid back down next to her and turned to face her but she continued staring upwards.

After a few minutes, she sighed and looked at him, but before she could say anything he gave her a small kiss.

 “You know, it does help to talk about things.” he smiled and his smile was all she needed right now. She gathered her thoughts, shuddering at the still vivid nightmare but she told it to him in more or less detail. He cupped her cheek with one hand and pulled her in again for a small but sweet kiss, but didn’t say a word. She appreciated the silence. She didn’t need fancy speeches about how these are manifests of our brains, she knew nightmares all too well. And sometimes they even helped shake loose some thoughts on how to look at a case from a different point of view, but this was just a punishment from her brain for trying to lock away her memories from the fire which not so long ago nearly killed her.

“I just need to hear some good news. A break in the case that could bring us closer to catching these animals.” she smiled and looked past him onto his bedside table to check the time. It was almost 4 pm.

“Maybe, I just need to get back into action.”

“I would say a few vacation days wouldn’t hurt, but from what I’ve seen so far, I sincerely doubt you would agree to that.” he smiled and she playfully hit his chest.

“Oh, I’m sure you go on sick leave all the time when it's recommended, right?” she laughed, already feeling better, the nightmare’s effects fading.

“Touché.” he laughed and pulled her closer to him, kissing her again.

***

Meanwhile the clock was ticking away at District 21. Atwater and Ruzek joined Halstead and Dawson in the bullpen. They were deep diving Kevin Cortez and his affiliates when Halstead's monitor went black.

"What the hell?" he looked confused and Ruzek stood behind him.

"Maybe a cable got loose?" Adam offered some explanation, but Dawson shook his head eyeing the cables. Suddenly the text _incoming call - NCIS_ appeared on the monitor.

"Okay, that also explains it." Halstead sighed and accepted the call. On the other end of the video were Special Agents Tim McGee and Ellie Bishop.

"Hey there, how's it going in Chicago?" McGee smiled.

"It's still cold as hell." Atwater said while he joined the small team gathering in front of Halstead's monitor.

"So, you've got something for us?" Halstead smiled.

"Yes, actually. NMNW claimed the attacks in DC."

"NMNW?" Dawson looked confused, he never heard about them.

"No More Navy Warfare." Bishop read from the paper in her hand "A fairly old Navy hater group, only known so far for throwing paint buckets at ships and bases."

"Seems like they have upgraded to arson and premeditated murder." Halstead shook his head "But they claimed the attacks in DC. We need to find out why Cortez came to Chicago. When he arrived, he emptied his bank account, does that sound like someone who was planning on going back to DC?"

"Not exactly." McGee said, looking through the stack of papers on his desk.

"So what was he really doing in Chicago?" Ruzek asked the obvious question. In DC, Ellie sat down to her desk and started typing away.

"I think, I might have an idea." she said as she projected her monitor's screen into the call. A list of names appeared on one side while addresses were listed next to their names. She scrolled down and highlighted five names.

"These officers moved to Illinois about 10 months ago."

"Elizabeth Bell, Jennifer Nelson, Michael Bird, James Webb and Jeffrey Chapman." Dawson read the names from the screen and jotted them down into his notepad.

"Can you run their names first? I'm sure you guys have a wider database at hand." Halstead said "Meanwhile, we'll try to find a current address for them." with that they said goodbye and everyone pitched in, trying to find these 5 people.

***

An hour later Watson and Severide laid back on his couch, drinking a cold beer and watching the news. She was about to suggest to get one more drink when the doorbell rang.

"You expecting someone?" she asked looking at the door then at Severide.

"Not that I know of." he stood up and walked to the door. He peered through the peephole and sighed "I'm pretty sure he's not looking for me." he said as he opened the door.

"Agent Torres." Severide forced a quick smile "Come on in."

"Lieutenant." Torres nodded then headed straight for the couch to join Watson.

"Do I wanna know how you found me here?" Watson raised an eyebrow.

"McGee." Torres smiled then dropped the folder he'd been carrying onto the desk in front of them.

"And to what do we owe the pleasure?" Severide asked as he grabbed a couple of beers from the fridge.                                                                     

"Project Vertigo." Torres said and looked at Sarah then at the folder. She quickly picked it up, her interest peeking higher and higher by the minute. Severide's confused face caused her to provide some explanation.

"The project our victims worked on." she smiled, the hope or faith she has lost before seemed to come back, slowly seeping back into her mind.

"Vertigo was basically established to help the Navy with some Mexican cartel problems." Torres started as Sarah looked through the folder "The Navy wanted a quick resolution to drugs coming in through the shipyards and docks."

"And if you want to stop the drugs from coming into a city, you have to cut off the line at the supplier, right?" Severide asked as he pulled up a chair next to the couch.

"Right. So the Navy, working together with the DEA, started giving out guns and intel to the rebels in the area, in exchange for intel on the cartel's shipments. They were hoping to quickly dismantle the cartel’s operations in the big US cities." Torres explained.

"Because handing out more guns to an unstable area is always a bright idea." Sarah shook her head as she was still going over the folder, looking through surveillance pictures and reports.

"Washington DC and its surrounding area was the trial run for the project which at first seemed successful, so naturally the higher-ups wanted to expand the operation. They started with big US cities with the highest level of drug problems."

"Chicago is definitely on that list." Severide added as he sipped away his beer.

"The first in line, actually. Then came Miami, LA and a few others." Sarah read the report "Okay, so we have some promising leads. I'll meet you tomorrow at the NCIS field office, Torres. We need to locate every member who ever worked on Vertigo."

"Yeah, about that…” Torres looked away awkwardly “You are on administrative leave until they deem you fit for duty.”

“What?!” Sarah dropped the folder and if looks could kill, Torres would have died right then and there.

 

**_to be continued_ **


	14. Not Just Another Fire

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading and enjoy! :)

It was January 23rd, a Tuesday, and NCIS Special Agent Sarah Watson was still in Chicago. Watson was still on administrative leave until she spoke with a psychiatrist from NCIS who could deem her fit for duty and she only trusted her friend and co-worker Dr. Jacqueline Sloane to speak to. However, Sloane couldn’t fly to Chicago in the past couple of days and Watson was not about to leave when she felt there was still a connection to investigate in Chicago. She knew the case would get handed over to the Chicago office and she wasn’t sure they would pursue it as much as she knew her team would. So on that Tuesday morning, at 9.30am she decided to walk into Chicago’s District 21 with eight cups of coffee and a box of doughnuts. She knew how to bribe fellow law enforcement officers to share information and she was not leaving the station without learning something new about the case. Platt buzzed her up after Watson offered her a cup of coffee and a doughnut with a huge smile.

She walked up the stairs and she was pleased with the view in front of her. Every member of the Intelligence unit was walking around the place, writing up newer and newer information onto the board, while some held papers in one hand and their phones in the other. Sergeant Voight, the head of the Intelligence unit sat in his office, on the phone with someone and it seemed like they were arguing about something.

“Good morning!” Sarah smiled and put down the coffees and the box of doughnuts onto the nearest table “I come bearing gifts.”

Those who were not on the phone came to pick up their much deserved food and said a quick thank you in return.

“So… can you share anything?” Watson inquired, slowly walking towards the board, trying to make out what they have figured out so far.

“Not officially, but since you were so nice to bring us something this bright and early in the morning…” Halstead said winking at her after downing his cup of coffee almost instantly. He walked to the board with Watson.

“We talked with Agents McGee and Bishop yesterday and figured out why Cortez came to operate in the Windy City.” Halstead pointed at five pictures on the board, two women and three men, all in navy uniform.

“These five people moved to Illinois in the past 10 months. We believe Cortez was here to target them specifically while his NMNW friends took care of the ones in DC.”

“NMNW?” Sarah looked confused.

“Yeah, the No More…”

“I know who they are.” Watson interrupted Atwater “It’s just… they were harmless so far, only paint buckets and the stuff. But arson and murder? That’s a big jump, no?”

“I’m pretty sure they would not be the first hater group to make that jump. With the right motivation…” Halstead said then picked up a doughnut from the box, took a bite and turned to Watson. “Oh my God, where did you get these?”

“The Doughnut Vault. Why? I thought they were the best in town.”

“They are. This is delicious!” Halstead smiled and was about to get one more when Olinsky snatched away the last one from the box.

***

It was 10am and it was a relatively slow shift for Firehouse 51. In the past 3 hours only ambo 61 had a call. The boys were getting restless, ready to head into action but there was none to head into.

“Someone should start cooking lunch…” Mouch offered from his usual place on the couch “Maybe then we’ll get a call.”

“It’s 10am Mouch, get a sandwich or something. Lunch is still a couple of hours away.” Otis smiled and plopped down onto the couch as well.

Severide and Casey were both in their offices, filling out papers and reports. Severide was about to start filling out a new form when his phone buzzed. She got a text from Watson, smiling he opened it.

_At 21, gonna drop by later. Want me to bring u some lunch?_

He was about to text back when a knock on his door distracted him. He looked up, only to see Casey smiling at him.

“Your pretty lady friend?” Casey smiled and pointed at Severide’s phone.

“What makes you think?”

“That huge smile on your face.” Casey laughed “I used to have that same smile when I started dating with Gabby and look where we are right now.” he showed the ring on his finger.

“Okay, slow your roll, Casey.” Severide laughed and after texting back Watson, he followed Casey towards the kitchen to grab some coffee. Normally they would head out for a smoke as well, but they decided against it this morning – even the cigars weren’t worth the cold.

They were finishing up their coffees when the blaring alarm sounded over the firehouse.

“Finally!” Mouch said, almost jumping up from the couch.

“ _Truck 81, Engine 51, Squad 3, Ambulance 61. Structure fire. 1149 W Cermak Road._ ”

The ride to the scene was short, the address was not too far away from the Firehouse. A four-story building emitted such amount of smoke that half the neighborhood was out watching the fire. The trucks lined up and the firefighters lined up alongside, getting their equipment ready.

“Okay, the first and second floor is already on fire and according to the building manager, the warehouse was emptied when they first noticed the fire on the first floor, but they are still doing the headcount.” Boden stood in front of his firefighters “It’s a costume factory…”

“Full of flammable and easily burning materials.” Casey acknowledged.

“Severide and Casey, choose two more people and search the 3rd and 4th floors. Be quick, but careful!” Boden pointed at the blueprint he obtained from the manager on site “It’s a fairly old building, but a few years ago they remodeled the stairwell.”

Severide studied the blueprint for a few seconds and nodded.

“We have to go through the whole third floor to find the new staircase to the 4th floor.” he pointed at the print.

“We’ll need to be quick.” Casey nodded, then they both chose their men, thus Herrmann, Kidd, Cruz and Capp joined their officers and moved into the warehouse. They stayed close to each other, keeping close to the walls and stayed low for more visibility. The stairwell was not yet engulfed in flames, the fire was contained to the first two floors, but the smoke was already heavy on the third floor as well. There was only one way to the fourth floor, so the small teams kept to each side of the corridor with Severide and Casey leading them. At each door, they stopped and breached and the all too known phrase was shouted:

“Fire Department. Call out!” but no answer came.

At the end of the floor, Severide and his team was ready to breach the last door before the new staircase, but when the door opened, heavy smoke erupted. Casey turned just in time to catch a glimpse of what lay behind the door. Barrels of flammable chemicals stacked upon each other and a small fire already burning in the room. The sudden income of oxygen fueled the fire and it quickly reached the barrels, lighting them up, causing a big blast.

As his first reaction, Casey jumped to push Severide out of the way and though they both missed the erupting flames, they both slammed into the wall then fell to the ground. When their teammates reached them, Severide and Casey lay motionless next to the staircase leading to the fourth floor.

“Mayday! Mayday!” Herrmann spoke into his radio “Two firefighters down, need immediate evac at the East side of the building on the third floor.”

With the help of the rest of Squad 3 and Truck 81, they got Casey and Severide out through a window nearest to the East side of the building where the flames were yet to reach the windows on the lower floors.

When the two firefighters were pulled down, Capp and Cruz laid Severide on the ground and pulled off his mask, while Herrmann and Otis did the same to Casey. Both of them remained unconscious. Gabby Dawson and her partner, Sylvie Brett rushed to them, but they had to treat them separately, as the second ambulance they called for still en route. Severide seemed to be the one in better shape. When Brett took off his coat, a small glimpse of blood was revealed on his left shoulder.

“So?” Cruz stood beside Brett, urging her for an answer.

“Besides re-opening his graze, I don’t see any injuries. He must have hit his head in the blast, he may have a concussion. The second ambo will take him to Med for further eval.” she explained as she put an oxygen mask on him.

“What about Casey?” Herrmann asked Gabby.

“His mask broke.” Gabby pointed at the broken mask on the ground.

“So smoke inhalation?” Kidd asked.

“That’s a given.” Gabby nodded as she put an oxygen mask on her husband “There’s a nasty cut on his head as well, his helmet must have been knocked off in the blast, so I’m thinking a concussion too.” she explained as she tried her best to stay professional and not to burst out in tears right then and there.

“We’re taking him to Med.” Gabby nodded as the second ambo arrived and Brett re-joined her partner. With the help of Herrmann and Kidd, they pulled Casey onto a gurney and rolled him into the ambulance. Gabby drove, while Brett tended to Casey in the back.

***

When Severide opened his eyes, it took him a while to get used to the brightness of the room he found himself in. A few minutes was all he needed to realize, he was in a hospital room, but still in his gear.

“Took you a while.” Will Halstead walked in the door a few seconds later and at Severide’s confused look he decided to explain what happened.

“How’s Casey?” was Severide’s first question, eager to get out of the bed, but when he tried leaning on his left arm to get out of the bed, he winced and lay back.

“You might need to rest for a bit. That graze opened up again, but you were lucky. You missed out on the concussion part.” Will said as he poured a glass of water for Severide and handed it to him “You’ll be released soon, after a short observation period.”

“And I can go back to work right away?” Severide asked after downing the glass of water.

“I’d say you deserve some rest at home, but I know you guys. So yeah, feel free to go back to shift.” Will nodded then left.

Casey was in the room next to Severide’s, but he was in a hospital gown already, his gear draped onto a seat next to his bed. A team of doctors worked around him, he was intubated to provide enough oxygen for him while he remained unconscious. Gabby Dawson watched from the doorway as tears gathered in her eyes.

“He’ll be fine, Gabby.” Brett said, putting a hand on her partner’s shoulder.

“They are saying his concussion might throw him into a coma, he is barely responsive as of now.” Gabby sniffed, then sighed. Will walked up to them with a comforting small smile on his face.

“We are doing our best, Gabby. The best of the best are working around him.”

“I know, thank you Will.”

“How’s Severide?” Brett asked, trying to peer into the next room.

“He’ll be fine. I need to sign a few papers then he can go.”

“We’ll give him a ride back.” Gabby nodded and refocused on her husband, watching the doctors and nurses rush around the room.

***

Watson parked her rental car as close to Firehouse 51 as she could so she could avoid walking in the freezing cold for too long. She was walking up to the door when ambo 61 arrived back, and Watson waved at Gabby and Sylvie on the front seat. She walked through the door when Gabby, Sylvie and Severide got out of the ambulance.

“Kelly?” Watson looked at him, confused and slightly worried at the same time.

“Oh, hey!” he smiled as he noticed her “Thanks for the ride back, girls!” he nodded towards Gabby and Brett, then started walking towards Watson, who was waiting for him besides the squad truck, hands crossed in front of her, waiting for an explanation.

“What was that?” Watson eyed him from top to bottom.

“A small explosion at a warehouse fire.”

“What?” Watson couldn’t believe his words “Are you okay?”

“I’ll be fine.” he smiled and when she hugged him he winced as he wrapped his arms around her. She pulled out of his embrace and eyed him suspiciously.

“You are hurt.” she stated.

“I reopened my graze wound.” he pulled up his shirt sleeve and showed his new stitches.

“Then I guess Will lost his bet.” she smiled as she slowly pulled his sleeve back down.

“What bet?” he looked at her confused as they started towards the quarters.

“Who would get more stitches.” she laughed and he pinched her arm playfully. They walked back to his quarters and she settled down onto his bed while he sat in his chair.

“So, I spent the better part of my morning at the 21st.” she said as she pulled out her notepad “And they’ve got some new leads.”

“On the arson murders?” Severide asked, his interest peaking.

“Yeah. Turns out, they really are killing off the Vertigo project members.” she sighed then pulled out a list of names from the notepad “5 officers moved to Illinois from DC in the past 10 months.”

“That’s why Cortez came to Chicago?” Kelly asked as he took a look at the names.

“You’re quick.” she smiled and he winked at her “Elizabeth Bell, Senior Chief Petty Officer, Department Chief for Supply in Vertigo. She retired in May 2017 and moved to Springfield, Illinois. She was killed in August 2017 in a house fire along with her husband and their daughter. The fire was first ruled an accident, but the lab found accelerant in the kitchen later.”

“Okay…” Severide nodded “What about the others?”

“Jennifer Nelson, off-duty for the past 9 months, a stay-at-home mom. She lives in Jacksonville, IL with her husband and their 8 months old triplets.” she read, looking up at Kelly occasionally, who kept watching her.

“Triplets? Wow.” he laughed “Not the brightest idea to move to around here…”

“Love can make you do crazy things.” she smiled at him and stared at him for a few more seconds, almost getting lost in his blue eyes.

“Okay…” she gulped, refocusing on her notebook “Michael Bird, Chief Petty Officer. He was a liaison officer for the DEA…”

“Was?” Severide interrupted.

“Yeah, he lived in Bloomington until 4 months ago, when his house burned down.”

“That’s the same month as Bell, right?” Kelly frowned, trying to connect the dots in his mind.

“Actually, he was killed a month later in September.” she flipped to the next page “Believe it or not, he was called back to DC at the last minute for a job when his house caught on fire. He moved to Winnetka after and was killed in a drive-by shooting.”

“Did the CPD find the shooter?”

“They think it could be tied to a gang, the uhm… Los Zetas, but no charges were ever filed because at the time, it made no sense that a Chief Petty Officer with a spotless record would be gunned down by a gang.” she explained and he just shook his head.

“The Zetas are bad news.” he sighed “Okay, what about the other two? They still alive?”

“One of them is Special Agent James Webb, who lives in Chicago with his family and works at the local NCIS office. He specializes in cyber stuff.” she flipped to another page.

“And the last one is Jeffrey Chapman, a Petty Officer. He lives in Knollwood, alone, and works at NCIS Great Lakes as well, heading up resources for Vertigo.”

“Looks like you finally caught a break.” Kelly smiled at her.

“Yeah, I wish it would be that easy.” she sighed, stood up and started pacing the small office “Webb and his family was moved to a safe house, into protective custody.”

“Great, one less thing for you to worry about!” he said, standing up as well.

“Yeah, but no one’s heard from PO Chapman in 3 days. He was on leave to visit his sister in DC, but he never made it onto his flight and he hasn’t shown up to work ever since.”

Severide stood in front of her, stopping her in her tracks, putting his hands on her arms.

“You think somebody got to him?”

“If the Zetas are involved… I think, we might be looking at a recovery, rather than a rescue.” she sighed and let him pull her into a hug.

She listened to his steady heartbeat, trying to match hers to his, to calm herself down. Truck 81 and Squad 3 was still on the scene of the warehouse fire and Severide had his radio on to listen in. He was about to kiss Watson when his radio buzzed in, Herrmann’s voice booming.

_“Chief, overhaul is complete. We’ve got a body in real bad shape on the third floor. Roll the cops.”_

“That’s trouble.” Severide sighed.

“You wanna roll to the scene? See what they’ve got?” Watson looked up at him, not letting him go for a moment.

“I mean… if it’s okay with you too?” he searched her eyes for the answer and she let go of him, smiling.

“I know I’d be going if I were you, so yeah. I’ll even take you.” she smiled.

“They ever tell you, you are the best?” he pulled her back to him, giving her a small kiss, which he just held for a little longer. He was grateful for her. He watched her head the way to her rental car and he couldn’t help but smile. She noticed him staring and smiling.

“What?” she asked, smiling, as she was about to get in.

“Nothing.” he smirked as he sat in, buckling in his seatbelt “I’m just glad you decided to drop in when you did.”

She gave him a small, but sweet kiss and started for the scene of the fire with Kelly guiding her through the roads of Chicago.

 

**_to be continued_ **


	15. The Dishonor of War

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here we go guys, enjoy! FYI there are some gruesome parts this time.

Detectives Jay Halstead, Antonio Dawson, Alvin Olinsky, Hailey Upton and Officers Kim Burgess, Adam Ruzek and Kevin Atwater were all working round the clock at the Intelligence unit’s bullpen. Now that they knew Cortez had victims in Illinois as well, they had to find out if he had partners here and where his hiding place was.

“I’m still waiting for his phone records.” Upton sighed, dropping back into her seat “Nobody is in imminent danger according to them, so we need to go through the official channels.”

“I’ll get started on the warrant.” Burgess offered and sat back to her computer and started typing away.

“One of the victims, uhm… Michael Bird.” Halstead shook his head looking at their evidence board “According to his casefile, he died in a gang related shooting. That doesn’t fit the profile, right?”

Antonio walked back to his desk and searched for Bird’s casefile and quickly read through it.

“Yeah, gang unit thought it was an unfortunate accident. This says here… it was a drive-by shooting, they tied it to the Los Zetas, but couldn’t prove anything. They had no motive, they couldn’t tie Bird to the Zetas. So he ended up classified as collateral damage in the drug war.”

Jay shook his head again.

“I know we see a lot of collateral damage, but this would be an awful coincidence.” Olinsky agreed.

“Plus, aren’t the Zetas more active up in Milwaukee?” Atwater scratched his head.

“Yeah, according to this report,” Antonio showed around a page in Bird’s casefile “in the end they actually closed the case saying, this was a shooting by the Latin Kings. Zetas around here are known to blend in to the Latin Kings, work with them instead of on their own.”

“Okay… here me out?” Halstead turned to the others, standing in front of the evidence board “Let’s say, the Zetas, or the Latin Kings,” he nodded at Antonio “did kill Michael Bird because Bird was working on the Vertigo project. Both the Zetas and the Latin Kings are basically Mexican cartels, Vertigo was all about minimizing drug income through the ports. If the cartel thought they were closing in on them, of course they’d take him out if the opportunity presented itself.”

“Go on.” Olinsky nodded.

“Kevin Cortez had gambling problems, from what NCIS could find out, the DC loan sharks were connected to a Mexican cartel, they just couldn’t pinpoint which one exactly.” Halstead walked to his desk and sat on it.

“And when the Navy kicked Cortez off the project, he couldn’t pay his debts anymore.” Upton stood up and started pacing “So they gave him a chance to course correct.”

“Start killing off the Vertigo project members to make the government call off the project?” Burgess asked, trying to wrap her head around everything.

“That would be a good start.” their boss’ voice rang out from behind them. They didn’t notice Voight standing in his doorway, listening to their brainstorming.

“We need to put together a timeline for Cortez, starting with when he was kicked off Vertigo.” Olinsky said, looking at Atwater and Burgess, who just nodded and started working on it.

“In the meanwhile, Halstead and Dawson. CPD requested us at a warehouse fire. They stumbled upon some nasty stuff.” Voight said then nodded towards Olinsky to follow him and the four of them drove to 1149 W Cermak Road.

***

By the time the Halstead, Dawson, Olinsky and Voight arrived, Watson and Severide was knee deep in the case. Watson was trying to convince Chief Boden to let her up, but he was not giving in. So when Watson noticed Dawson and Halstead walking up to them, her eyes sparkled and realized this was her chance to get in on the action.

“Looks like someone got a heads-up.” Dawson smiled as he noticed Watson.

“Perks of being at the right place at the right time.” Watson smiled and hoped Torres didn’t tell them that NCIS benched her.

“You wanna come up, take a look around?” Halstead asked, then quickly looked at Voight “If that’s okay with you, Sarge.”

Voight just nodded silently, which meant Boden couldn’t stop Sarah anymore. She followed the guys upstairs where they met with Severide and Herrmann at the last room on the third floor.

“What do we have boys?” Voight asked as he shone a flashlight into the room. The place was burned to black, but the light caught a lump in the back corner.

“A body in a really bad shape.” Severide said, but he couldn’t keep his eyes off Watson. She smiled at him then followed everyone into the room. As they inched closer, the stench of burnt human flesh was just getting worse and worse. The body was truly in a horrible shape, every inch of flesh burnt almost to the bone. Several pieces of bone tore through the burnt flesh.

“The victim was obviously in bad shape before the fire.” Halstead said as he tried his best to breathe through his mouth.

“The beating is not the worst part.” Olinsky said, shining his light on a smaller lump next to the body. With a couple of more lights shone that way Watson instantly recognized what they were looking at.

“Beheading.” she couldn’t believe her eyes first, but after Dawson and Halstead took a closer look they nodded, agreeing with her.

“Now that is the MO of the Zetas and the Latin Kings.” Dawson said, then started walking around the room, trying to find the smallest possible evidence that could have survived the fire. Watson took one last look at the body, ready to look at anything else, but her flashlight caught a glimpse of grey in a heap of ash next to the skull. She asked for gloves and Halstead handed her one. She pulled out the thing that caught her eye and shook off the ash from it. She shone her light on what she found. It was obviously an ID holder, but the card inside was badly charred, she strained her eyes, going over it inch by inch when her eyes caught something.

“Oh no.” she sighed.

“What?” Voight stepped next to her and she pointed at the four letter word that was clearly visible in the right bottom corner.

“N.C.I.S.” Voight read it aloud slowly.

“That’s not good.” Olinsky shook his head. Watson handed over the piece of evidence to Voight then rushed out of the room and practically ran out of the building. She stopped behind the Squad truck to catch her breath then she pulled out her cellphone with shaky hands and dialed Torres. It kept ringing out with no answer.

“Damn it, Torres. Pick it up!” she mumbled to herself.

After about 10 rings she hung up and dialed again. This time, the answer came almost immediately.

“What’s up, Watson?” came Torres’ voice from the phone.

“Oh thank God.” she sighed and slumped down onto the ground, her back against the truck.

“Watson? You there? What happened?

“I’m good, but… CFD found a body with an NCIS ID card next to it…”

“Aren’t you supposed to be on your way to DC for your eval?” Torres interrupted her.

“Did you hear what I just said?!” she almost yelled at him “One of us is dead.”

“Don’t go there, Watson. You know fully as well that an ID card can be easily printed and planted to mislead us.” Torres sighed “Text me the address, I’ll coordinate with CPD and CFD. But I don’t want to see you when I get there.” his voice sounded as a final warning. With that they hung up and Watson texted the address to him. She took a few deep breaths, trying to get herself together when she heard urgent steps coming her way.

“Watson?” she heard Severide’s voice from behind the truck. She stood up, wiped off the tears rolling down her face and after another deep breath walked out from behind the truck.

“I’m here.” she said, her voice almost failing her as she quickly wiped another tear drop away.

He rushed to her and pulled her in for a hug. She rested her head on his chest, hoping that listening to his heartbeat would slow hers down but she couldn’t hear a thing through his gear. He kept rubbing small circles on her back, he had no idea what to say. She pulled out of his embrace after a few minutes.

“It’s…” she could barely get the words out “It’s not Torres.”

“That’s good!” he sighed, then shook his head “But who is it then?”

“That’s up for the medical examiner to determine.”

“Or maybe the techs can work some magic on that ID card?” he smiled at her.

“Or that, yeah.” she could barely look him in the eye “Look, I need get out of here, Torres is coming and I’m technically still benched, so I couldn’t even be here in the first place. I’ll call you later.” she was about to turn around and head for her car when Severide caught her arm and she finally looked up at him. He smiled softly at her and brought her close for a small but sweet kiss. She felt her body relax at his touch which only made her sad, because she realized how empty the apartment will be at night and that she would probably not get any sleep. With a small smile playing on her lips she said goodbye and went back to Firehouse 51 to collect Severide’s spare keys. He offered it up on the car ride earlier so that she could spend the night at the apartment in peace instead of with him at the Firehouse. Although he wouldn’t mind Sarah spending the night with him, but he knew it was selfish of him to keep her around the whole day while he was on shift and a call could come in at any time, leaving her alone at the 51.

***

Meanwhile, back in Washington D.C., Special Agents Tim McGee and Ellie Bishop were trying to track Kevin Cortez’ movement from last summer. After discovering that two more project members were dead but this time in Illinois, they needed evidence to tie the murders to Cortez.

“Screw this, I’m getting those phone records anyway.” McGee slapped his hand on his desk then started typing.

“I’m trying to find where Cortez was holed up in DC, but his last known address was a bust. The house was torn down a couple of weeks ago.” she pulled up a map on her computer and put a blue pin at his last known address. There were seven other pins, all in red: two in Annapolis, then one in Baltimore, Rockville, Glenwood, Springfield and Winnetka. The seven victims so far. These seven had names – but the one who died in Chicago a few hours ago was not identified yet, so his place of death was not on the map yet. Looking at the map, Bishop felt like her heart was being squeezed so tight it couldn’t beat anymore. She closed the program then stood up from her desk and started pacing.

“Cortez had to be in Illinois in last August to kill Elizabeth Bell and Michael Bird.” she said, thinking out loud.

“Yeah, but Bird actually died a month later, in a gang shooting. Detective Dawson sent me the report, he was collateral damage in a drug war.”

“That would be awfully convenient.” Bishop huffed “Besides, if they really needed to stop this project… I just don’t get it. Bell died in August, a month before Cortez was dishonorably discharged. Then they couldn’t get Bird in the same month so they wait a month to get to him?”

“It makes less and less sense as you get into it.” McGee shook his head “Ah, I finally got the phone records.”

“Pull up last August.” Bishop instructed as she focused on the large screen between McGee’s and Torres’ desk. McGee hit a couple of keys then stood next to Ellie and they read through the lines. The records contained every number Cortez ever contacted and every number that ever called or texted him. It also revealed the corresponding dates and almost precise locations.

“Huh.” Ellie cocked her head sideways.

“What do you see?” Gibbs, their boss walked in and sat down to his desk.

“According to his phone records, Kevin Cortez was in Illinois for at least a week in last August.” Bishop pointed out the lines and McGee hit another set of keys, in turn the calls and texts in question got highlighted on the record.

“He was in Springfield, Illinois on the 10th.” Bishop read and McGee sat down to her desk and pulled up Bell’s file.

“CFD responded to Bell’s address on the 10th of August, 2017.” McGee read, then pulled up Bird’s file “Michael Bird’s house burned down on the 15th in Bloomington, with no casualties.”

Bishop scrolled down to the day in question.

“Bingo!” she smiled “Cortez was in Bloomington, Illinois on the 15th.”

“Where was he in between those dates?” Gibbs said, looking up from a report on his desk. Ellie scrolled through the four days in question.

“Records indicate, he stayed in Chicago.” Ellie read the location records.

“It doesn’t make sense.” Gibbs shook his head “There is what, 70 miles between Bloomington and Springfield? Why wait four, five more days to take out Bird when he could have done it in one day. He stayed in Illinois for a week. This was a 3-day job at best, counting in travel time if he wanted to avoid airports.”

“There were three more officers, who moved to Illinois. Jennifer Nelson lives in Jacksonville, James Webb in Chicago and Jeffrey Chapman in Knollwood.” McGee opened up the list they compiled.

“Jacksonville? That’s right next to Springfield…” Gibbs scratched his head.

“Either he was the worst criminal mastermind or…” Bishop turned to look at Gibbs and McGee “Or, he was given instructions. It was not his choosing who to kill and when.”

"That would make the most sense." McGee nodded "Maybe they waited more to avoid the cops making the connections?"

"Look, if their only objective was to shut down Vertigo, they should have done the most damage in the shortest time they could. The higher-ups only respond to immediate danger." Gibbs said, standing up from his desk.

"Noone even thought the cases were connected before the letter came." McGee argued.

"Except for Sarah." Bishop added.

"Watson was onto something." Gibbs agreed "Contact the rest of the Vertigo project members McGee. They are not leaving the bases where they work and their families will need protection details." with that Gibbs started towards the stairs to report their progress to Director Vance.

 

***

Back in Chicago, Watson decided to join the Intelligence unit for the evening. She briefly made it home after leaving the crime scene. She went to Firehouse 51 to pick up Severide's spare keys then drove home. She sat on the couch for a couple of hours, the TV was on, but only as background noise. She couldn't focus on anything. So at around 6pm, she stood up, pulled on as many warm clothes as she could find and headed straight to District 21. Desk Sergeant Trudy Platt was reluctant to let her up at first. Luckily, Antonio Dawson arrived a mere 5 minutes after her and took her upstairs.

"So..." she started, hoping that she wouldn't have to ask for the specifics.

"I had the luck to meet your partner again." Dawson said, his smile not honest.

"I know he's a handful, trust me, Detective." Watson forced on a small smile "But, I was hoping you would share what you have so far with me."

"From what I've heard, you are benched. Is that true?" Antonio smiled as he sat down to his desk.

"Yeah, agency policy. You have to talk to a shrink after numerous attempts have been made at your life." she shook her head, she clearly disagreed with that policy. _Attempts at your life are part of the job description_ \- was what she always told to herself.

"Well, I could accidentally leave my notepad on my desk while I go pour myself a cup of coffee." Dawson smiled, pulled out his notepad and put it onto the desk, then slowly stood up and walked away into break room. Watson looked at Burgess, who was typing away at her computer and didn't even look at her. Sarah slowly walked to Antonio's desk and picked up his notepad.

"I didn't see that." Burgess smiled, looking up at Sarah for a second.

"Thanks." Watson smiled back then refocused on the notepad. _Body was transported to the county morgue and the DNA check was put on a rush order. The charred ID was sent to the lab where a technician already started working on it._ Hopefully, they would be receiving that call any minute now. Watson put the notepad back then sat on the edge of Dawson's desk. She was about to head into the break room as well to get some coffee for herself when she heard voices coming from the stairs. Halstead, Olinsky and Voight were walking up the stairs, but another familiar voice followed them. It was Torres. Sarah quickly stood up, but before she could turn away and make her way towards the break room, Voight called out.

"Ah, Special Agent Watson. What a nice surprise." Voight smiled, followed by Halstead and Olinsky who nodded at her as their way of greeting. Torres stopped next to her, arms crossed in front of his chest.

"What did I tell you, Watson?" his voice contained a warning Sarah rarely heard.

"That you didn't want to see me at the crime scene." she forced a quick smile "And you didn't."

"Oh, so you think you are funny."

"This is my case, Torres! I started this, I made the connections before anyone ever gave a fuck about those poor souls." Watson was dangerously close to losing her calm and that was the last thing she needed now.

"You can't do anything until you are cleared for duty! Don't you understand? You are jeopardizing the whole case." Torres argued, his voice level rising as well. Their argument was interrupted by Dawson's landline's ringing. Halstead answered it before Antonio came back. After a few nods and thank yous, he walked to their evidence board, grabbed a marker and wrote up the following:

_VICTIM: JEFFREY CHAPMAN (PO)_

"Fuck." Sarah said, louder than she realized.

"ID was made based on the card you recovered at the scene and the DNA rush analysis came back a positive match as well." Halstead explained.

"That was quick." Torres chimed in.

"The lab focused on NCIS personnel in Illinois only at first. We would have expanded the circle to Navy personnel if we didn't get a hit..."

"No one’s heard from PO Chapman in 3 days. He was on leave to visit his sister in DC, but he never made it onto his flight and he hasn’t shown up to work ever since." Watson recalled what she has learned that morning.

"He was bound to turn up dead at any time." Atwater added "If this is really the Zetas or Latin Kings' work, we've got trouble on the way."

Before Sarah could object, her phone started ringing. She picked it up quickly.

"Hey, Agent Watson. I was thinking we could sit down and have a quick talk." Sarah instantly recognized her voice.

"Sloane, of course. Only problem is, I'm still in Chicago." Sarah pinched the bridge of her nose "I don't think I can get back to DC right now."

"Oh, you don't have to, Watson. I'm right here at District 21. Come on down and we'll find an empty room for us."

Watson's heart skipped a beat. She wanted to be back in action as soon as possible, but it felt like a bit too soon to tear up those not so old wounds that se just barely managed to bury away in her mind. But if she wanted to work her case again, this was the price she had to pay.

 

**_to be continued_ **


	16. The Fire Burning Inside Us

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Enjoy! :)

At Firehouse 51, Boden called Severide and Herrmann into his office, Herrmann was taking over Truck 81 until Casey could come back. Severide and Herrmann sat in front of their boss, who was tapping his pen on his table, thinking. For the first few moments, neither of them spoke. Then Boden took a deep breath and looked at Kelly.

“Lieutenant Severide. NCIS and CPD no longer require your services.”

“I’m sorry, Chief. I don’t understand.” Kelly looked at him, confused.

“He might be our best chance when it comes to arson, Chief.” Herrmann pointed it out, which Boden of course knew, but he had to look at things from a different perspective.

“You are off the case, Lieutenant, per my request. You are to no longer pursue leads, simply because it is getting too dangerous and I’m not losing one of my best man.”

“With all due respect, Chief, it’d be much safer for us if I keep working the case with Watson.” Kelly reacted rather harshly, but one look from Boden made him lower his voice “We’ll know if a fire is a trap beforehand, saving lives that way.”

“You will no longer work with NCIS and CPD, Lieutenant, while on active duty. Whatever you do on your own time, off shift, that I cannot control.” Boden explained then let the two firefighters go back to the break room.

“This is bullshit.” Severide cursed under his breath when they were out of Connie’s earshot.

“He’s just trying to look out for you, buddy.” Herrmann offered “We all know you’ll find a way to keep working. Arson is what you are best at, besides firefighting.” Herrmann smiled then went ahead to pour himself a cup of coffee and sat down on the couch next to Mouch. Kelly never made it to the break room, he went straight for his quarters and collapsed on his bed. Staring at the ceiling, he was trying to decide whether to call Watson or not, but he decided to get some shut-eye before their next call came.

***

Special Agent Jacqueline "Jack" Sloane was not your usual Forensic Psychologist. She started out in California first, then she was in the Army which almost broke her completely. She was held for nine months in Afghanistan while insurgents tried to torture Army intel out of her. She never said a word, but they killed all of her teammates right in front of her and that will haunt her for the rest of her life. She stuck to office work in the past couple of years, but ever since she joined the Major Case Response Team in DC, she got more involved in investigating cases and once in a while a case can rip up those buried memories and then it all comes back again. So Jack Sloane was exactly the right person to determine whether Watson was fit for duty or not, because she had first-hand experience.

Watson walked down the stairs from CPD’s Intelligence unit to find Sloane sitting on a bench. When Desk Sergeant Trudy Platt noticed her, she motioned towards Sloane. Sarah smiled at her thankfully then walked up to Sloane and hugged her.

“Jack. It’s so good to see you!” she smiled as she let go of her colleague.

“Likewise, Sarah. Now let’s get this eval on so you can get your badass-self back on the field.” Jack smiled then looked at Trudy, who motioned to the office behind them. It was empty, so the agents stepped in and sat down to talk.

“Thanks for getting to Chicago as soon as possible. I know you profile everybody…” Jack was about to interrupt her, but Watson continued, smiling “and you may deny this but you profile your friends on your spare time so I wanted you to eval me.”

“Look who is profiling who.” Jack smiled then pulled out her notebook and a pen “Let’s start at the beginning. This shit storm started after your came to Chicago, right?”

“Yeah.” Watson sighed “I was after Cortez, an arsonist. My first day here and I got shot.” she shook her head at the memory of what went down at the McCormick Place’s West Building. A vivid image popped into her head, the security woman, gasping for air. She started rubbing her hands as if her body remembered that was what she had done that night to scrub off the blood she had got on herself while she had been keeping pressure on that poor woman’s neck wound. Sloane noted down a few things, then motioned for Sarah to continue.

“I was fine though, I mean, that was just a graze. I’ve had worse shootings.” she tried to force on a small smile “Then that crazy son of a bitch came straight for me and set my house on fire.”

“That’s quite the trauma.” Jack spoke. She wrote into her notebook without ever taking her eyes off Sarah.

“Yeah, that was not easy. I mean, I was out for a while, spent a few days in the hospital.” she suddenly remembered how Kelly had come to visit her every day, him sitting next to her and their time spent together talking and laughing. She smiled to herself.

“From that smile, I’d guess something good came out of it as well.” Sloane smiled mischievously.

“You could say that.”

“And what’s his name?”

“Severide. Lieutenant Severide.” Sarah smiled.

“Ah, a cop?” Jack smiled at her.

“No, actually. He’s a firefighter.” Sarah’s eyes lit up while she talked about him.

“That makes sense.” was Jack’s only comment which brought Sarah back to the reality that this was not exactly a friendly talk between two old friends, but a talk that would determine whether she could keep working the case.

“Let’s talk a bit more about how you have been feeling.”

Watson knew she had no other choice but to be honest here, Sloane would see right through her every attempt at lying.

“I’ve been having nightmares.” she sighed, another vivid image of her recurring nightmare popping into her head.

_She’s running on an endless corridor away from fire and smoke, at first searching for Severide then just trying to save herself. It always ends one way._

“And what happens in those nightmares?”

“I die.” was her short and quick answer “Usually by the fire, but I’m sometimes fast enough to reach the window, then I die after I jump.” she added.

“You know that it is natural to have nightmares after what you have been through, right?” Sloane asked “Studies have found that a dream starts with an individual thought or scene and since dreams are not predetermined, your brain responds to the situation by either thinking a good thought or a bad thought, and the dream framework follows from there.”

“And who could have a head full of good and happy thoughts after almost dying three times within a week.” Watson shrugged, shifting positions in her seat.

“Three times?” Sloane looked at her curiously “You only told me about two.”

“Yeah, the third one came a few days after the fire.” Sarah continued to explain what had happened just three days before, when Cortez had been killed. Sloane listened without interrupting her, noting down a couple of things she found interesting.

“I suppose it would be even harder for you to cope with Cortez trying to kill you with fire rather than being shot at twice.” Sloane added and Watson looked at her, confused.

“I mean, I get shot at a lot and it’s not every day someone tries to set me on fire, so I guess yes.”

“I didn’t mean that, Watson.” at Sarah’s confused look she added “Drew Martinez.”

Watson’s eyes widened as another vivid image flared up in the back of her mind.

_2012, New Orleans. She was sitting in the NCIS office, along with her colleagues, their eyes glued to the TV screen in the room. It was a breaking news coverage of a violent gang’s video._ _They were executing a man on live TV. That man was Special Agent Andrew Martinez. Sarah’s first partner, who was kidnapped and after a failed attempt at rescuing him, his captors set him on fire and broadcasted it online for the world to witness his death._

Watson shuddered at the still intense memory. She thought she had it buried, deep down, locked away in a box, but bringing up that name undid it all.

“I didn’t even think about him until you brought his name up.” Sarah shook her head.

“I know that the arsonist is dead, but I also heard there are people who are willing to continue his work.” Jack closed her notepad “I’ll let you back to your work, on one condition.”

“Name it.” was Sarah’s eager reply.

“You’ll need to have weekly, or at least biweekly meetings.”

“Meetings?” Sarah shook her head, ready to protest.

“Relax. Meetings with me.” Jack smiled and Sarah eased back into her seat.

“Thank God, Sloane. I thought you were trying to rope me into PTSD meetings or something.” Sarah smiled “You have a deal.” Sarah extended her right hand towards Sloane, who shook it.

Before they could say goodbye, Sarah’s phone started ringing. Caller ID read Torres.

“I’m sorry, I have to take this.” Sarah smiled apologetically “Thanks for everything!” with that she stepped out of the office and answered her phone.

“So, you back in business Watson?” no hello, no how are you, that was Torres for you if he had to work after 7 pm, a grumpy middle aged man.

“Good evening to you too, Torres. And yes, Jack just cleared me for duty.” she smiled, realizing she could jump right back into action.

“That’s good. Then get your ass to the NCIS office, we have some work to do.” with that Torres hung up on her and all she could do was mutter _rude!,_ then she pocketed her phone and left to the NCIS Great Lakes office.

***

The drive to the NCIS Great Lakes office from the 21st District took a bit more than an hour for Watson. The office was in one of the smaller buildings of the Great Lakes Naval Station, and after a thorough identity check, Sarah was led into a bull pen which eerily reminded her of their own back in DC. The same orange walls, the same glass roof, the same desks and monitors. The only difference, the space was half of what they had in DC. She was greeted by Torres with a quick hug who then ushered Watson towards a man standing in front of a huge TV screen similar to theirs back in DC.

“Special Agent James Webb.” the man smiled, extending a hand which Sarah shook.

“Special Agent Sarah Watson.” she forced on a quick smile “So, what do we have?”

Torres shot her a look before turning on the screen. _What do we have_ was their bosses line back in DC.

“Since Webb here refused to stay at the safe house, we’ll continue working the case together. You are just in time for the conference call, Watson.”

“Conference call?” Sarah looked confused, but Torres just only nodded then tapped a few keys and the screen read: OUTGOING CALL – NCIS

Soon, Sarah smiled at the familiar faces popping up on the screen.

“Gibbs, McGee, Bishop! So good to see you!” Sarah waved.

“Glad to see you in one piece, Watson.” was Gibbs’ short answer which signaled they were here to do business and not chit-chat.

“We got a call from the local LEOs that they captured two NMNW members in Maryland today. They were trying to break into a Navy officer’s home.” Bishop explained.

“Please tell me they had something interesting to offer.” Torres sighed.

“After Gibbs talked to them, they were ready to confess.” McGee smiled “They are willing to give up the whole operation in DC, but…”

“That’s not enough.” Sarah interrupted.

“You need to find and eliminate the link in Illinois.” Gibbs nodded.

“It’s the Zetas and the Latin Kings working together, Agent Gibbs.” Webb said “That’s not going to be an easy task.”

“Rule 38, Watson.” Gibbs' rules were an extensive series of guidelines that he lived by and taught to the people he worked closely with. Rule 38 was: _Your case, your lead_. Watson cocked her head sideways, chewing on an idea that she had been playing with for a while now.

“What are you thinking, Watson?” Torres looked at her, raising an eyebrow.

“An undercover job.” she smiled.

“That would not be the worst idea Sarah, but your face was all over the news after the McCormick shooting.” McGee protested and Watson just smiled.

“Wasn’t thinking about me.”

“Who did you have in mind?” Gibbs asked.

“Torres and a local detective, Antonio Dawson.” Watson smiled, putting a hand on Torres’ shoulder.

“Oh, that’s gonna be fun…” Torres sighed. After agreeing on some specifics, they said goodbye and ended the call. Although Dawson was not Torres’ favorite, and he would have rather went under with Watson; that was not an option right now. They had to dismantle the cartel’s operations from the inside. And who better to involve than a disgraced, recently fired former NCIS agent and Antonio Dawson, who already had an undercover persona with the Latin Kings after their dealings with Pulpo years ago.

 

**_to be continued_ **

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Things are about to go crazy complicated, so stay tuned! ;)


	17. Take It or Leave It

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the long wait, work has been crazy.  
> So enjoy! :)

Gabby Dawson visited her husband Matt Casey in the hospital every day, she sneaked into his room after dropping off patients at Med, while Brett finished the paperwork. This was one of those stolen moments as well. They dropped off a patient late at night and after handing her off to the ED doctors Dawson ran into her husband’s room, in full gear and stood next to his bed, taking his hand in hers, planting a small kiss on his forehead.

“Hey honey.” she fought back the tears “You know, it’s been a week. We really need you back at the firehouse. I think Herrmann had done just about enough paperwork. Oh and Severide’s been smoking his cigars all alone on the roof again. They all miss you so much.” she smiled, planting another kiss on his forehead and squeezing his hand.

“But most importantly, I need you back. The house is so empty without you, I don’t even want to go home. Halstead had to kick me out of here a couple of times just to go home.” she sighed “But you know, after a quick shower and some food, I always come right back. I can’t sleep at home…”

Before she could continue Sylvie knocked on the door.

“We need to get back.” Brett said with an apologetic smile.

“I know.” Dawson sighed “I love you Matt.” she let a tear roll down her face while she kissed his forehead and squeezed his hand one more time then walked out the door.

Dawson and Brett walked back to ambo 61 slowly, neither of them speaking. Then after they started back for the firehouse Brett finally spoke first.

“How’s he?”

“Halstead got some movement out of his arm the other day, he reacted to pain stimuli, but at best he is still a GCS 5.” she brushed away a few tears “The swelling in his brain went down completely, so they are expecting him to make a full recovery, even if it will be a slow one.” she let out a small smile but she could barely look at Brett.

***

Watson was walking up and down in the locker room at Firehouse 51. It was past 9pm, Severide was on shift so she decided to visit him. She had trouble with falling asleep anyways, there were just too many things on her mind. She had been pacing for a couple of minutes and she was just about ready to slam her fist into a locker, when Severide stepped in.

“Hey there.” he smiled and hugged her from behind. At first, she let his warmth calm her, she was hoping to relax, but she wriggled out of his embrace after a few moments.

“What’s wrong?” he asked with a worried expression on his face.

“It’s taking way too long.” she sighed, leaning against the nearest locker, which turned out to be Kelly’s. He looked at her, confused, hoping she would explain it further.

“It’s been almost a week since we started planning this undercover mission. I think it’s safe to say both NCIS and CPD had faster infiltrations than this.” she crossed her arms in front of her chest.

“I’m not the expert on that,” Severide smiled “but I know they’re doing everything they can and there has been no deaths since Chapman. So that’s a good sign, right?”

“I don’t know.” she shook her head “I think…” she sighed “I think I need to get involved.”

“I doubt that would be a good idea.” Severide opposed, stepping closer to her.

“Rule 45.” at his confused look she added “Clean up the mess that you make.”

“While I see the logic in that, this is not your mess, Sarah.” he shook his head “Not when your name and face is out in the news.”

“That’s the perfect reason for it.” she started pacing up and down again.

“Why?” was his only response as he sat down on one of the benches.

“I could pose as a rogue agent.” he was about to interrupt but she put up her hand “Just hear me out, okay?”

“Go on.”

“A rogue agent, who never got into Vertigo despite numerous promises from the higher-ups. From both NCIS and DEA and because of that I want to see the project end.”

“You want my honest opinion?” Severide asked after Sarah finally stopped pacing. She looked at him then nodded.

“Sounds legit, if nothing happened previously, the shooting or the death of Cortez, I’d totally buy that reason. But the Latin Kings won’t.”

“But this would be an easier in with them. I could get them on my side quicker.”

“Wouldn’t that waste all the effort Antonio and Torres has put in so far?”

“Whose side are you on?” if looks could kill, well, Sarah’s look was not a happy one. She wanted to see this case end, not because she wanted to go back to DC, but because she wanted the weight of the case off her shoulders.

“This is not about sides Sarah. This is about you getting yourself killed over what, one more week of waiting?” Severide stood up “Antonio and Torres are your, hell, our best chances at this, why ruin that?”

Sarah was getting angrier by the minute.

“Are you serious? You think I’m not good enough to go undercover?” she started for the corridor leading to the quarters “Is it because I’m a woman or is it because we have a thing?”

“Sarah…” Severide could barely keep up with her. She opened his quarters’ door and pulled something out of her pocket and she slammed it onto his desk. As he stopped for a moment he could see it was his keys.

“Sarah, come on, don’t do this.” he followed her out into the brutally cold Chicago night.

“I have work to do.” was all she said then she jumped into her rental car and drove away. Severide was about to start after her when the all too familiar siren rang out announcing a call that needed his attention.

She stopped 4 streets from the station, pulled to the side and took out her phone, searching for reasonably priced hotels in the area. When she found one she started for it, tears rolling down her face. She genuinely believed they needed to step up their game to stop the Latin Kings and the NMNW from killing more members of the Vertigo project, but to her, right now, it seemed that the whole world was against her.

***

That night, Sarah just kept tossing and turning in her bed, barely getting enough sleep. She got up around 6.30am and had a hot shower before she sat down to have her morning coffee and check her phone. She had 4 missed calls and 4 unread messages, all of them from Severide. She deleted the notifications and was about to go and get some breakfast when her phone started ringing. She quickly checked the screen – she had no intention of answering Severide’s calls –, but the call came from an unknown number. So she quickly answered.

“Watson.”

“Agent Watson, I’m Officer Kim Burgess” her voice was familiar but she couldn’t place her yet “From Intelligence.”

“Tell me you have some good news.” Watson continued getting ready to head out into the cold.

“The mission is a go. They are already staging the attack on their next target…”

“Webb, right?” she interrupted Kim.

“Yes, but we’d like your help in setting the trap for the Latin Kings. We need all the manpower right now.”

“Happy to help.” Sarah smiled to herself “We’ll need to prep a house, make it look like it’s an NCIS safe house and let them attack it. Then we take them out...”

“Or in, you know, for questioning.” Burgess interrupted.

“Whatever works for you guys.” Watson smiled then hung up the phone and went to get some breakfast.

 

**_to be continued_ **


	18. The Cost of Doing Business

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thing are about to get hot, but also out of hand. But it's the cost of doing business.  
> This one's a bit longer, so, enjoy! :)

Prepping a bait house is no small feat. You have to do it without bringing too much attention to the house, you need a good excuse for a usually empty house to suddenly have a couple of visitors. Intelligence gladly took Watson’s idea on how to move around the neighborhood without drawing too much attention to themselves. Exterminators. It took two full days and four guys to prep everything. Watson and Atwater kept up appearances while Burgess and Ruzek wired the house. They also prepped the 12' x 8' shed in the backyard and made it into a makeshift on-site HQ. Burgess, Ruzek and Halstead camped out there. They had a full view of the house, inside and outside and could monitor the cameras and wires set up at the house.

It was around Wednesday 11am on January 31st that they finished setting the bait, so Watson and Atwater left in the exterminator’s truck, while the three Intelligence officers stayed behind.

After dropping off everything at the 21st District, Watson got changed and decided to head out. She couldn’t find a parking space close to the precinct in the morning so it was a 10 minute walk to get to her car. 10 minutes are awfully long when your mind is full of questions and thoughts are racing through. She sat into her car and she kept sitting there for another 5 minutes before finally deciding where to go.

***

Severide was watching a rerun of a Blackhawks game when his doorbell rang. He put aside his beer and walked to the door, he didn’t even look who it could have been, just swung the door right open. When he saw it was Watson standing outside, his eyes first went wide in surprise, then his lips curled into a small smile.

“Hey.” she spoke first “Can I… uhm, can I come in?”

He didn’t say a word just stepped aside, letting her in. She dropped off her scarf and coat onto the hanger then started for the kitchen. She leaned onto the counter and buried her face in her hands, taking in a deep and slow breath.

“Look…” she said finally, looking up at him. He was standing only a few feet away from her, his eyes searching her face.

“I just want to say…” she took another deep breath “I just wanna say I’m sorry.”

Severide raised an eyebrow but remained silent.

"I'm sorry for being such an ass the other day." she sighed "I'm just... I'm not good with waiting, or being kept on the sidelines, you know."

"I've noticed." he smiled, taking a step closer to her.

"It was my case from the start, I should be the one to clear this mess up and noone else should be risking their lives because I got made." she started pacing. He moved after her, stopping her in her tracks and pulled her in for a hug.

"I appreciate the honesty, Sarah." he smiled, kissing the top of her head. She laid her head on his chest, listening to his increasing heartbeat. Being this close to him, hers started racing too.

After a few moments, Sarah took a step back, breaking out of his embrace. Her eyes kept darting to his lips and that was all the signal he needed. He closed the distance between them, capturing her lips in a passionate kiss. It was one of the most intense kisses she'd ever experienced, every nerve in her body firing off. His strong arms wrapped around her, she pressed closer to him, savouring the warmth of his strong body against hers. They stumbled into the living room, Watson pushed Severide backwards until he was forced to fall onto the couch. He looked up at her, fire and desire burning in his eyes.

Sarah straddled him, sitting in his lap and he immediately wrapped his arms tightly around her waist. She pressed her lips to Severide's in a hot kiss, holding him close as his strong arms wandered up and down her back. As her mouth travelled from his lip to his neck, he groaned quietly and pulled her even closer to himself. He ran his hands up her sides slowly, then his lips travelled to her neck.

“Hey, your roomie’s not home, right?” Watson asked as he was about to pull off her shirt.

“She’s staying at her boyfriend’s tonight, so… don’t worry.” He smiled and started slowly undressing her, in turn she tugged at the bottom of his shirt which she impatiently pulled off of him.

“Hey, that’s my favorite shirt…” he tried to look hurt.

“I’m sure I’ll find a way to make it up to you.” She smiled and after wriggling out of their pants, she straddled him again. He gripped her hip, pulling her even closer to him, her hands wandered down, tracing his abs. As her hands slid up his stomach and roamed over his chest, he groaned, reaching out quickly to capture her lips in a passionate kiss again. She wrapped her arms around his neck, leaning into the kiss and was about to move further when she heard the key turning in the lock.

“Fuck!” she cursed “You said she’s not coming home.” She quickly jumped up, gathering as much of her clothes as she could and ran into his bedroom to get dressed. He didn’t have that much time, so he just grabbed the blanket from the other side of the sofa and covered himself up. Sarah was getting dressed when she heard Stella’s voice coming from the living room and she was almost ready when she realized her bra was missing.

Stella walked into the kitchen, putting away a couple of things into the fridge.

“Sorry to barge in on like this.” she didn’t even look at Severide “I just need to get a couple of things then I’ll be out of your hair.”

When she turned, she saw him sitting on the sofa, a blanket covering his lower half. Stella stopped in her tracks then her eyes noticed the white bra on the edge of the sofa.

“I came in at the wrong time, huh?” she smiled and Severide only nodded.

“Give me a minute and I promise you won’t see me till next shift.” Stella chuckled and walked into her bedroom.

When Sarah heard Stella’s steps fading, she quickly tip-toed out of his bedroom, back to the sofa and picked up her bra, ready to go back and continue dressing up.

“Hey, don’t make me take that off twice.” he winked as she walked back into his bedroom.

Sarah sat down onto his bed, smiling to herself as she remembered his comment. She decided she'd surprise him and quickly undressed herself, lay down and pulled the covers up to her chin. A few minutes passed before she heard the front door closing and heavy steps coming towards the bedroom.

"Playing hide-and-seek?" he smiled. He walked in with the blanket still wrapped around his waist and quickly raised the covers to lie next to her when he noticed she was waiting for him naked. He stood there in awe for a couple of seconds.

"You've got any plans or will you join me finally?" her voice brought him back to his senses and he quickly jumped into bed, pulling back the covers on them. He planted an urgent kiss on her lips and she grabbed his shoulders, pulling him closer.

He kissed her again, wrapping his arms around her waist and she melted into his embrace. She slipped her hand up his back to the base of his neck, pressing him closer to her as she kissed him passionately. She moved her other hand to the small of his back, grazing her nails against his skin. Severide tightened his grip on her waist as she shifted to plant a trail of steamy kisses down his neck. His hands roamed her form, tracing a line up her tight to her waist up until he curve of her breast. She gasped, a pleasant shiver running down her spine which made Kelly smile in response. She tried pulling him in for another kiss but he went for her neck instead, planting a trail of hot kisses. Sarah pressed against his chest with one hand, pushing him onto his back, then she crawled forward until her legs rested on either side of his hips. He gripped her waist as she leaned down to place a trail of kisses from one shoulder to the other, arcing her back. Finally she dipped low to place a steamy kiss on his lips and he let out a low moan. Sarah raked her nails across his skin and he drew in a sharp breath. She lowered herself onto him and moaned softly as he began to move his hips against hers. She pressed her body against his, enjoying the feel of his muscles working and the sensation of his skin against hers. They moved together to a rhythm, with every move a pulse of pleasure rippling through them. His hands pushed against the small of her back, trying to pull her ever closer. Soon, the only thing she could focus on was him and the explosions of ecstasy taking over her body.

Sometime later she woke to her phone ringing. She picked it up without checking the caller ID.

"Watson."

"It's Burgess. We need you at the district."

Sarah looked at the bedside table, glancing at the clock. It was almost 5pm.

"Sure, I'll be there in 20." she said hanging up.

She crawled out from under the covers and silently dressed up, trying her best not to wake him up.

"You wanted to sneak out on me?" she heard his voice when she finished dressing up.

"They need me at the district." she smiled apologetically "I'll be back before you know it." she walked back, giving him a small kiss. He tried pulling her back into bed but she refused and with a small wave walked out of his bedroom. She finished putting on all her clothes then walked out into the freezing Chicago afternoon.

***

Watson was at the 21st within 20 minutes, just as she promised. Trudy let her up and she met with Burgess, Voight, Ruzek and Olinsky upstairs.

“What’s going on?” she asked.

“Nothing.” was Olinsky’s short answer.

“Which is not good.” Voight continued.

“They should have moved on the bait house by now.” Sarah agreed but before she could continue, her phone started ringing. It was a video call from an unknown number. She answered the phone, but didn’t say a word. The video showed the floor of some warehouse type building first then moved upwards, focusing on two men tied to chairs. Sarah motioned for everyone to gather around her and watch the video with her.

The video kept zooming on the two men and as they got closer blood glistened in the dim light on the ground.

“What the hell is this?” Voight asked the obvious question that was racing through their minds.

Before anyone could answer a deep and distorted voice came from the phone.

“ _This is what happens, when you try messing with the Zetas or the Latin Kings._ ”

The video finally showed the faces of the two obviously beaten and tortured men. It was Detective Antonio Dawson and NCIS Special Agent Nick Torres. Sarah’s heart skipped a beat. Ruzek immediately sat down to his computer and started pinging the video to get a location. The video seemed to be live as the cameraman continued to deliver punches to both guys, in turn both of them coughed up blood.

“Oh my God.” was all Burgess could say. Upton stepped next to Ruzek watching the computer work as it tried pinging the video’s location. Just before the video cut to black a small beep indicated the pinging was successful and they all grabbed their gear and headed out to the scene.

The cavalry arrived within minutes to the warehouse the computer indicated and as soon as they stepped out of their cars the cartel guys opened fire on them. They took them down swiftly, one by one, moving together to the warehouse quickly. There were another dozen men inside and while the guys laid down covering fire, Watson and Upton’s task was to get Antonio and Torres out of there. Torres was in the worse shape so Sarah started working on untying him, while Upton focused on Dawson’s ropes. Sarah was almost finished with untying the last of Torres’ binds when a bullet barely whizzed by her head and a splash of blood hit her face and a body dropped onto her. After the initial shock, she quickly regained herself but only to catch a view she never wanted to see. The blood that splattered onto her face and clothes and the body that belonged to it: it was Torres. He was shot through the head. Sarah just stood there in shock, her hands trembling. When Upton noticed that, she knocked down Antonio’s chair and pulled him to cover then moved Sarah out of the way too.

She was shaking badly and she couldn’t take her eyes off his body. Her partner was shot right before she could move him to safety. Upton quickly finished untying Antonio then shook Sarah’s shoulder.

“Come on, Watson! Snap out of it! We need to get out of here!” Upton shook her again “Like, right now!”

Sarah’s mind came back to reality for a split second which allowed her to assess the situation quickly. Bullets were whizzing through the warehouse and it was her and Upton’s job to get Antonio to safety. So she steadied Dawson with one hand and guided him towards the back entrance while Upton covered their six. After moving to safety outside, Upton called an ambulance and ordered Watson to stay with Dawson while she moved back towards the others. Sarah crouched next to Dawson, her gun in her right hand. Her right hand holding her gun was steady as steel but her left kept trembling and she couldn’t peel her eyes away from the warehouse. Somewhere in there, her partner lay in his own pool of blood and no amount of help would ever get him back to her alive.

 

**_to be continued_ **


	19. The Darkest Night

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Took me quite a while, work is literal hell.  
> I'm not saying have fun with this one, because well, it's quite an emotional chapter.

Antonio Dawson and Sarah Watson stayed outside the warehouse, at a safe distance. Dawson was in immediate need of medical attention, but the ambulance was taking its sweet time getting there with the rush hour traffic gridlocking the city.

“Stay with me, Dawson.” Sarah said, barely managing to get out the words while checking his pulse. Dawson was in and out of consciousness. Sarah’s mind was racing, she couldn’t shake the image of Torres’ body, bleeding out on the warehouse floor. But her senses were still on high alert so she heard the footsteps coming their way. The person who was approaching them was in a hurry, so she quickly turned around, aiming her weapon at chest high. She saw a man coming at them, hoodie pulled into his face, a knife glistening in the soft, warm street light.

“Stop right there!” she shouted, crouching in front of Antonio to shield him. A few minutes ago, her right hand holding her gun was steady as steel but at that moment it was trembling just as badly as her left. The assailant noticed and immediately started for her, aiming his knife at her chest. She fired off three rounds but none of them hit their intended target, the man was still coming at her.

***

Upton and Ruzek were finishing their sweep of the warehouse when they heard the three shots.

“Antonio.” they said looking at each other and started running towards where Upton had left Dawson with Watson. When they turned the corner, they skidded to a halt. They were just in time to see Watson breaking the perp’s neck with one swift motion.

“Holy shit!” Ruzek said, lowering his weapon.

“Watson?” Upton asked, holstering her weapon “Are you okay? We heard shots…”

“I’m… uhm…” she gulped “I think, I’m fine.” She said as she rolled the assailant’s body off of her and sat back down on the ground, staring at her bloody hands.

The ambulance arrived a few minutes afterwards. They loaded Antonio, then went to check on Watson.

“I keep telling you guys. I’m fine.” she resisted.

“And I keep telling you, Agent Watson, that you are not fine. You took a couple of blows to your head and you’ve got two open stabbing wounds.”

“He barely slashed me.”

“We need to take you to Med nonetheless.” the paramedic argued and Watson finally gave in, sitting into the back of the ambulance with the paramedic by her side, who kept treating Antonio on the way to Med. The ride was awkwardly silent and Sarah’s mind kept racing back to what happened at the warehouse. Flashes of memories kept flooding her brain, most of them from the terrible night she just had but some were from earlier, about losing her previous partner. A few tears rolled down her cheek as she stared out the back window of the ambulance.

***

Severide was spending his night at Molly’s when the TV started showing the breaking news coverage.

“Herrmann, turn it up, will you?” he asked, pointing at the TV. His friend just nodded and increased the volume on the TV, which led to everyone at the bar focusing on the news.

“ _A horrible video was released today by the Latin Kings. The video shows two law enforcement officers being beaten. Chicago PD tracked its source to an old auto parts warehouse where they engaged in a gun fight with the Latin Kings. Two law enforcement officers, a detective and a special agent were taken to the hospital, while another special agent sadly died at the scene. We will be right back with live coverage of the events…_ ”

Severide almost dropped his drink. He pulled out his phone, searched for Sarah’s number and immediately dialed it. It just kept ringing, but no answer came. He dialed again, but it was all the same. Ringing but no answer ever came. He searched for Jay Halstead’s number and dialed him. The five rings it took to get through to him seemed like eternal hell.

“Halstead.”

“Jay, it’s Severide. I just saw the news, man…”

“It’s not her.” was all Jay said and Severide let out a sigh that he didn’t even realize was holding back.

“Is she…”

“She’s at Med. She’s got a couple of scratches here and there, but the worst of it is not going to be physical.” Jay explained as he was getting into his car, ready to drive to Med as well to check on Antonio “The sons of bitches shot Torres right before she could untie him.”

“Oh God.” was all Severide could say as he slammed a $20 next to his glass and headed outside. He thanked Jay then called himself a taxi, heading straight for Chicago Med.

***

Watson was sitting in a hospital bed, staring ahead. She barely noticed the two nurses tending to her, sterilizing and wrapping her wounds. Will Halstead briefly visited her before moving onto Dawson, who was in the worse shape out of the two of them. Dr. Charles also came in to check on her and administered a mild sedative to help her calm down and come out of the shock the events caused. Dr. Charles was coming out of Watson’s room when Severide arrived to the ED.

“Dr. Charles. How is she?” he rushed to her room.

“That is not an easy question to answer, Lieutenant.” Charles sighed looking at Watson.

“What do you mean, Doc?”

“Physically, she’ll be in good health in a couple of days. Mentally? That is a whole other subject. She will probably need some sort of therapy and some medication to help her sleep. What she had witnessed, it darkens a piece of your soul. It never truly leaves you.” he shook his head, then looked at Severide “I mean, you can bottle it all up, but it will come back sooner or later. And usually it is sooner than most of us think.”

“You know what happened out there?” Severide was eager for an answer “Nobody’s telling me anything.” he could barely take off his eyes of Sarah.

“I only know a few details.” Charles said, looking back at Sarah “She has not spoken since she was brought in, but that's understandable." Charles motioned for him to take a few steps aside, so Watson wouldn't notice them “I’d advise you to stay at her side, for as long as she needs it.”

“I’m not leaving her side anytime soon, that I can promise Doc.” Severide nodded.

“She will need plenty of rest, which she’ll only get if she has the proper medication to help her sleep. And most importantly, she will need somebody to talk to. Fair warning, it might not be you, Lieutenant.” at Severide’s confused look, Charles continued “You might be too close to her and from what I’ve gathered so far, she is not someone who easily opens up.”

“I’ll be there for her. But I might know someone who could help more. I’ll reach out to her.” Severide nodded “Can I go in now?”

“I’d say to wait another 10-15 minutes so the sedative I administered can work, but otherwise, she is cleared for visitors.” with that Dr. Charles said goodbye and headed for the elevator. Severide stood at Sarah’s room’s door, watching her. She kept staring right ahead, barely blinking. Meanwhile, Sarah’s mind was racing, the sedative barely worked, although it slowed her thoughts and her heart wasn’t racing as much, she was still in shock. She kept staring ahead, but she didn’t see the hospital door or Severide standing there, in her mind she was still in that warehouse and all she could see was Torres’ body on the floor and his blood flowing through her fingers, soaking into her skin and her clothes. With each slow blink, she saw less and less of that gruesome scene, but each blink let another tear fall as well.

 

**_to be continued_ **


	20. We All Grieve in Our Own Way

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Enjoy! :)

Severide stepped into Watson’s ED room. By the time he came back from the vending machines, she was laid back on the hospital bed, eyes closed. It looked like the meds had finally kicked in. He walked in as silently as possible and sat down into the chair next to her bed. She looked peaceful, as if nothing had happened. But he knew; he knew the upcoming days, hell probably weeks were not going to be easy. He was about to drift off into a nap when she sat straight up in her bed screaming. He jumped up from the chair and took her hands in his.

“Hey, you’re okay. It’s over.” he tried his best to calm her down “I’m right here.”

Sarah took in her surroundings, finally realizing she was in the hospital and not at the warehouse. She looked at her hands and she couldn’t see the blood anymore, instead she saw Severide’s fingers intertwined with hers. Her tears started falling as she pulled Severide close for a tight hug. He kept stroking her head saying _It’s all over now. You’re safe._ and whatever else he thought could help. Suddenly, she let him go and moved to one side of the hospital bed. He sat down next to her and she laid her head on his chest, some tears still falling, making his CFD jumper wet. He put one arm around her, while the other held her hand tightly.

“Can we stay like this?” he barely heard her voice.

“Unless Halstead kicks me out, I’m right here with you, every step of the way.” he planted a small kiss on the top of her head. She squeezed his hand and muttered a small thank you then allowed herself to drift off into a more peaceful sleep as she listened to his steady heartbeat.

***

A couple of days had passed since that horrible night at the warehouse. Watson was released from Chicago Med within a day with quite a munition of medicine prescribed for her to get through the trauma of losing her partner. Sarah had been put on administrative leave again, but this time, she was not pushing back. She had been staying at Severide’s apartment. The past two days Severide had been home with her, they ordered take-out and watched whatever they could find on TV. Whenever they stayed on the couch, Watson cuddled up close to him, but otherwise she kept her distance.

On February 3rd, a bright but snowy Saturday, Severide was on shift while Watson stayed at his apartment. When he got to the firehouse and changed, his first thing was to place a call that was supposed to be a miracle call. His last line of effort on getting Sarah back on her feet. After three rings, Sloane finally answered. They had been in contact for the past couple of days as Severide was trying his best to console Sarah.

“Lieutenant, to what do I owe this early call?” Sloane sounded sleepy.

“Sloane… crap, I’m sorry.” he sighed “I forgot it’s Saturday. I can call you back…”

“No need, tell me what’s going on! How’s Sarah?”

“I don’t know, honestly.” he took a deep breath “Whenever I’m home, she barely talks or even looks at me. When we watch TV she stays close to me but otherwise, she is always far away. It’s like she just… exists, if you know what I mean?”

“Well, Lieutenant, we all grieve in our own way.” Sloane sighed “But it’s been a couple of days, so you need to find something to get her to snap out of this stage.”

“I’m all ears on how to do that.” he pinched the bridge of his nose, he had no idea how to do that. If he had, he would have done it days ago.

“Get her out of this comfort zone she’s created for herself.” she paused for a second “Or more like, get her back into her own comfort zone… take her to a shooting range.”

“A shooting range?” Severide couldn’t believe his ears “Wouldn’t that be a trigger?”

“Might be just what she needs to confront herself, it’s also a good way to let out pent up emotions, so she might get angry in the process. But trust me, she’ll be grateful to you in the end.” with that they said goodbye and hung up. Severide started searching for the best gun ranges in Chicago on his laptop before their first alarm came in.

***

Watson was about to change the channel on the TV as she tried finishing her first cup of coffee of the day when the doorbell rang. She hesitated for a second, she wasn’t even in her own apartment. But when the doorbell rang again she stood up quickly and stomped to the door. Without looking through the peephole she threw open the door.

“What?” at first she didn’t even look at the person standing at the door, but when no answer came she looked up and saw Sloane.

“Jack? How…?” but before she could finish the sentence, Sloane walked in straight to the kitchen and put a big bag of food onto the counter. After discarding the heavy winter wear Sloane decided to put on that day, she finally stopped and looked at Sarah, smiling.

“I brought Chinese. Your favorite.”

Watson’s interest peaked for the first time in the past few days, her stomach growling loudly.

“Thanks. You know me so well.” Sarah smiled, probably for the first time that week and pulled out plates for them. They packed their plates with delicious Chinese food then headed for the couch to eat. Watson planned to devour the food in total silence, enjoying the delicious flavors, but Sloane had other things in mind.

“So, when’s the last time you’ve been out?” Sloane asked, taking a sip from her water bottle to help with the spicy flavors.

“Couple of days…” was all Sarah said.

“Probably when the good Lieutenant brought you home from the hospital, right?” Sloane continued, but Watson just nodded.

“Sarah, I’m here as a friend.” Sloane smiled “I can’t tell you how to grieve, but I can tell when it’s going to turn into a dangerous stage.”

“I’ll just need a couple more days to get myself together. I need to start dealing with the funeral.” she dropped her fork onto her plate “Oh God. I need to call his sister… Lucia.” a tear threatened to fall from the corner of her eye.

“I went ahead and already did the notifications, I started with Lucia.” Sloane put her empty plate down “But there is a more pressing matter we need to talk about.”

Watson finished her food as well and picked up Sloane’s empty plate, walked to the kitchen and put them into the sink.

“A more pressing matter?” she sounded confused as she walked back to the couch.

“You know, you’ve been in Chicago a while. And since Intelligence is all over the case now, I think it’s time for you to go home.”

“Back to DC?” Watson shook her head “No, no, no. I need to finish what I started here. I want to be there when they nail the son of a bitch who shot my partner!” a single tear finally dropped.

“The team really misses you back home…” Sloane started but Watson could barely hear her over the racing thoughts in her mind. It was all coming back. With trembling hands she tried to get a pill to help her calm down but before she could get it out of the pillbox Sloane suddenly put a hand on Watson’s.

“No, Sarah. You need to get these feelings out in the open.” Sloane sighed “You know what happens when you keep it all bottled up, right?” by then tears were streaming down Sarah’s face.

“I… Sloane… I got…” she gulped “I got him killed.” she finally said what had been eating away at her since that night at the warehouse. Sloane put a comforting hand on Watson’s shoulder, giving her a slight nod to continue talking.

“Torres… Nick? He died because of me.”

“That’s not true.” Sloane shook her head.

“Yes, it is!” Watson yelled standing up and she started pacing. Sloane stood up as well, but didn’t say a word, she was trying to figure out how to get Sarah to talk. Watson needed that talk even if she hadn’t realized it yet.

“It’s true!” Watson continued and finally stopped in front of Sloane “I got Nick killed! It’s all my fault!” she was sobbing “This whole fucking undercover assignment was my idea. I put him in unnecessary danger...”

“It wasn’t unnecessary and you know Sarah, that if you hadn’t come up with the idea he would have suggested it himself. Nick, he loved undercover work more than anything.” Sloane explained. Watson paced for another minute or so before dropping to the couch and wiping her tears away. Sloane sat down next to her.

“Feel better?” Sloane smiled. Watson looked at her hands, noticing that they were not trembling anymore and her chest didn’t feel that tight anymore either. She nodded slowly.

“I told you, you need to get these things out of your system before it consumes you. Trust me, I know.” Sloane smiled and gave Sarah a quick hug “Now, I’ll be right out of your hair. I need to get back to DC sadly.”

“Already?” Sarah smiled. She truly felt like a heavy weight had lifted from her soul, like it was not just her task to carry the problem on her shoulders anymore.

“I’ve been here long enough, Sarah. I came here almost two weeks ago, they need me back home.” Sloane smiled as she started getting dressed “They also need you, I don’t have to remind you that we’re a man down.”

Watson nodded slowly, then shook her head lightly.

“I need to finish things up here first.”

Sarah started getting dressed as well and at Sloane’s confused look, she explained

“I’ll walk you out. The cold air might do my head some good.” she smiled. They both got dressed and walked down the stairs. When they got out onto the street Sloane pulled out her phone.

“I’m going to get myself an Uber to the hotel. I’ll call you when I get back to DC, okay?” Sloane smiled “Remember our deal? We still need to talk weekly.”

“I know, I know.” Sarah smiled but when she looked up at Sloane she saw a figure running away behind her on the other side of the street. It was snowing heavily, so visibility was not the best, but it was still daytime. She was hoping to catch a glimpse so she stepped out onto the street, but she couldn’t see it anymore.

“What is it, Watson?” Sloane turned around as well.

“I thought I saw someone…” she took one more step forward then a sudden blast forced her and Sloane onto the ground, covering their heads with their hands. After the initial shock, Watson quickly sat up, trying to make out what the hell happened. That was when she saw her rental car, or more precisely what was left of it, still one fire.

***

Severide was on his way to get his second coffee of the day when the all too familiar alarm sounded. He was standing at the kitchen counter listening to the alarm when he realized that the address was too familiar.

“Severide!” he heard Stella’s voice as they ran out towards the trucks.

“Isn’t this your address, man?” Casey’s voice rang out as they hopped into their gears.

“Yeah, it is. And Watson is staying there.” he yelled as he jumped into his seat then Squad 3, Truck 81, Engine 51 and Ambo 61 started for Severide’s address.

**_to be continued_ **


	21. Hell Will Rain Upon

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Enjoy and be ready for an explosive chapter ;)

Watson was about to reach for Sloane to see if she was okay when she noticed a man running towards them. She was still a little out of focus after the bomb blast knocked her down. She shook her head lightly to get the ringing out of her ear, then focused her attention to the man who was getting closer every second. She was about to try and stand up when the man reached her and offered her a hand. Sarah looked up at him but hesitantly took his hand. He helped her off the ground, then pulled Sloane up as well. He was talking to them but both of them had trouble hearing him.

“I called 911.” the man shouted and Sarah finally understood what he was desperately trying to say to them when the lights of the firetrucks shone up at the next corner. Her rental car was still on fire, blowing a hell of a smoke which was a pretty good indicator for the Fire Department as to where to rush. She took a few careful steps out onto the street to wave for them anyway.

Squad 3 was the fastest of the trucks.

“Look, that’s Watson, right?” Tony pointed toward Sarah who took a few steps out onto the street to wave at them.

“Yeah, that’s her.” Severide smiled, seeing that Watson was safe. They were still a corner away when another blast shook the neighborhood and knocked Sarah right back onto the ground.

“Holy crap!” was all Cruz could say as he saw the flames engulfing the car that blew up.

Sloane reacted quickly, she stayed low and pulled Watson back from the street to the sidewalk, propping her up next to a car parked there.

“Are you okay?” Sloane asked, an urgency ringing in her voice.

“I’m fine.” Sarah pinched the bridge of her nose “A bit dizzy, but that’s all.”

As Sloane offered her a hand and helped her stand up she heard a door slamming and footsteps rushing forward. Before she could look up, she was pulled into a tight hug. She was released as quickly as the hug came and she finally heard the voice belonging to the person who hugged her.

“Sarah, are you okay?” Severide’s voice was full of worry and it pierced right through her ringing ears. She looked up at him, she was still in his arms, and he was holding her close.

“Yeah, I’m fine.” she smiled and he quickly pulled her in for a kiss. Squad 3 was dealing with the two cars on fire when Truck 81, Engine 51 and Ambo 61 arrived on scene.

“Go do your thing.” Sarah smiled at Severide who gave her another quick kiss then jogged back to his squad.

“What the fresh hell is going on around here?” Sloane asked, looking around “I don’t think your car just happened to malfunction when we came down.”

Watson shook her head, taking in the swirl of firefighters on the street.

“No, this was a remote-controlled detonation.” she took a careful step forward “And I think it has to do with that guy I saw walking away…”

“And here I thought we were not supposed to jump to conclusions.”

“I’m just thinking out loud.”

A minute later Sylvie Brett and Gabriella Dawson came rushing towards Watson and Sloane.

“Agent Watson?” Brett looked worried.

“We’re fine.” Sarah smiled.

“Nothing but a few scratches here and there.” Sloane assured them.

“Well, it’s not everyday someone walks away from two car bombs completely unscathed, so if you guys don’t mind, we’d like to give you a once over.” Dawson smiled, dropping her go bag next to them. Watson knew there was no use for them to protest, so she nodded, accepting her fate.

After a short check-up both Watson and Sloane was released with a clean bill of health and were advised to take things easy; but when an attempt is made on one’s life we can do very little to stay calm. Besides, Watson rarely took things easy, she was either all the way in or not at all. Severide was standing next to Chief Boden when Watson approached them.

“Sorry to interrupt.” Watson started, startling the two men who had not seen her coming.

“Ah, Agent Watson. How can I help you?” Boden smiled.

“I was hoping to pick your brain for a theory…”

“A theory?” Boden turned to look at her.

“You see, I highly doubt this was some unfortunate timing or a faulty wiring in a car or whatever could make my rental go boom…”

Severide smiled at her as she was at a loss of words on how to imply that the incident was not an accident.

“From the looks of it…” Severide interrupted her “I’d say there was at least one device. I’d say, your car was the intended target, the second explosion might have been caused by the first overheating the car next to it.”

“That’s my opinion as well.” Boden nodded then focused his gaze back onto the now less chaotic scene with the fire finally out.

“But here’s my problem with that.” Watson stepped a little closer to the men so only they could hear her “Nobody got hurt.”

“I don’t think that’s a problem, Agent Watson. I’d say that’s luck.” Boden smiled but Sarah shook her head.

“All due respect, think about it Chief.” Sarah sighed “This was most certainly not random, it was meant for me. That was my car that blew up.”

The two men only nodded in silence, persuading her to continue.

“Now, if this was meant as a message to stop my investigation, well, that’s not going to be enough.” She looked around before continuing “I think… I think they have something else planned as well.”

“Right here and now?” Severide asked while he took off his helmet.

“Agent Watson, Chicago PD is about to lock down this and the next couple of blocks for hours. No one gets in or out without them noticing. What else could they do?” Boden looked at her, waiting for answer.

“They could have already planted another device.” Watson offered her theory.

“It’s not uncommon, Chief, to have a secondary device detonate when first responders arrive for maximum casualty.” Severide agreed.

“I can’t argue with that, but first responders are already on scene.” Boden shook his head.

“Yeah, but as usual, CPD is taking its time to bring out the full cavalry. Only a few officers around, no one involved in the investigation.” Watson continued explaining her theory. Severide looked around.

“Intelligence isn’t here yet.” he lowered his voice and Watson nodded.

“Now, I have two theories. One, either they’re waiting for someone from Voight’s team to show up. Or two, they are waiting for more of a CPD presence in general.”

“Then we’ve got ourselves a problem.” Boden sighed “We can’t go looking around for a bomb when someone could be watching us, right now, waiting to blow us all to Heaven.” he shook his head.

“And we can’t do any suspicious moves or…”

“Boom.” Severide finished her sentence.

“One good news is, that it’s not tuned to radio frequencies.” Boden said looking around “Both CFD and CPD have been using their radios nonstop.”

“So it’s either timed or it has a cellphone activator.” Watson sighed. Things just got a million times more complicated for everyone involved.

“I’m going to talk to Agent Sloane. We need to start searching for whoever has the detonator. And find him, preferably before he or she tries to blow us all into pieces.” Watson said and with a small nod turned around and walked back to Sloane.

***

Halstead and Ruzek had been dancing around in one of the interrogation rooms, trying their best to crack a suspect. They had captured a Latin Kings member at the night of the warehouse shooting and no one had been able to break him so far. Halstead was growing more and more impatient.

“You’re running out of luck, amigo.” Jay had to do his best not to raise his voice.

“I don’t know what the hell you talking about, dude.” The guy was barely past his twenties, yet from what the Gang Unit had on him, it seemed he was a big fish in the Latin Kings’ pond.

“You’ll be taking the blame for the warehouse shooting, pal.” Ruzek smiled “Do you know how much you can get for killing a federal agent?”

“No way, I didn’t kill no federales, hombre.” the guy shook his head.

“You are just a regular city guy, right?” Halstead scoffed “Hector, you had quite an amount of heroin on you, your gun was used during the shootout. I don’t think you’ll walk the Earth as a free man ever again… unless you work with us.”

Before Hector could answer Burgess opened the door of the interrogation room.

“Halstead, Ruzek. You’ve got to see this.” her voice had such an urgency that the two men immediately stood up.

“Ah, I see the first message had been delivered.” Hector smiled smugly “The second will follow soon. Sooner than you think…”

“What the hell are you talking about?” Ruzek yelled. He had enough of his mind games and riddles and was just about ready to slam the guy into the wall behind him to get something out of him.

“Turn on the news. You’ll see.” Hector continued smiling.

Halstead and Ruzek rushed out of the interrogation room, following Burgess. The news was already on in the bullpen, showing a breaking news coverage of a Chicago street, filled with firefighters and cops.

“A bomb went off.” Voight broke the silence in the room.

“I really hoped they’d keep to guns and ease off of the explosives.” Burgess sighed.

“Atwater and Upton went ahead, Halstead, finish up your interrogation then head out as well.”

Ruzek turned up the volume on the TV.

“ _We are coming to you with live coverage from downtown Chicago, where a car bomb had been detonated in front of an apartment complex. There are no casualties so far, the Chicago Fire Department and Police Department are on scene and the following blocks are closed from traffic…”_ the announcer was about to list the road block when a loud boom pierced through, making all eyes in the bullpen refocus on the TV just in time to see another flash of light.

“ _Oh my God, another bomb went off. And from what we can see, it seems like a firetruck had been destroyed as well.”_ the announcer’s terrified voice boomed throughout the silent office space.

 

**_to be continued_ **


	22. In Pursuit

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 22 is here! Don't hesitate to send feedback! I'd love to know what you guys think :)

Halstead and Ruzek got out of their cars nearly 15 minutes after the second bomb had gone off. The scene was still chaotic, people sitting on the sidewalk, paramedics setting up triage and firefighters struggling to put out Engine 51’s fire caused by the blast.

“Holy shit!” was all Ruzek could say as they walked towards the makeshift command center that had been set up.

“Is everyone okay?” Halstead asked when they reached the command center. Agents Watson and Sloane were in charge but they were working together with Atwater and Upton.

“More or less.” Upton sighed “We’ve got a couple lightly injured firefighters and a CPD officer who was rushed to Med.”

“Shrapnel hit him right in the neck.” Atwater shook his head.

“You were hit too.” Halstead pointed at Watson, who had a tear in her light blue coat on her right shoulder, which caused a visible dark red circle.

“Nothing serious.” Watson dismissed his concerns then focused back on the map on the table in front of them “Like we originally guessed, the second bomb was supposed to target first responders. The car that blew up was suspiciously close to Engine 51…”

“This bomb was meant as a message.” Ruzek interrupted her and Watson looked up at him, dead serious, but not even a little bit surprised.

“But you knew that.” Halstead tried to step in “We’ve got a Latin Kings member in custody who confirmed that two messages had been sent out.”

“Received loud and clear.” Watson said “Now, from what I could gather, this is a mostly residential area for quite a couple of blocks in every direction.”

“Yeah, which means backyards, alleys and a thousand other possibilities for the perp to escape the road blocks.” Atwater nodded.

“I’ve been thinking…” Sloane started and all eyes turned to her “I think the guy is still around.”

“Why would he be?” Upton shook her head in disbelief.

“If this was supposed to be a message, well it went sideways.” Sloane looked around “Only one gravely injured police officer who had nothing to do with the investigation.”

“Yeah.” Ruzek nodded “They have to come after those who are working the case or their loved ones. That’s their usual cartel method.”

“Except, there aren’t a lot of names out in the wind.” Watson explained.

“Which means they have to get to you.” Upton nodded then slowly shook her head. Watson took a couple steps back then turned around and started looking for anything that could stand out. There were not many bystanders thanks to the police cordons up for a couple of blocks and the freezing weather. But there he was again. Sarah turned back and pointed at the map like she was explaining something.

“Middle aged Latino in blue jeans, black coat and black hoodie directly behind me, at the alley four houses up.”

Halstead, Ruzek and Upton were the only ones standing in front of Watson, so only they could look up without raising suspicion.

“Yeah, I see him.” Halstead nodded.

“I think I’ve seen him before the first bomb destroyed my rental” Watson explained.

“Slight problem, guys.” Upton sighed “There is no way to get closer to him without him noticing us and when he does, trust me, he’ll run.”

Atwater pointed to a couple of corners on the map before speaking.

“We have PODs set up around these corners. If he slips away we can track his movements later.”

“A middle aged guy in blue jeans, black coat and a hoodie?” Watson look up “Isn’t that going to be a bit complicated?”

“An idea.” Sloane spoke finally “Door to door questioning, that’s a thing here too, right? You go from door to door to question the neighborhood.”

“Yeah, we do that too.” Ruzek smiled, getting the gist of what Sloane wanted.

“He’s four houses up and there’s six of us.” Atwater was thinking out loud.

“I like those odds.” Halstead smiled “And if he makes a move, we’ll all be close enough to chase him down.”

“Let’s get to it then.” Watson agreed. They all picked up small notepads and pens from the table then started walking towards the guy who was still standing there.

“Okay, this is me.” Sloane smiled then walked up to the first house and started knocking.

Atwater and Ruzek had the second and third house, so Watson, Halstead and Upton continued to make their way towards the last one. The suspect noticed them getting closer, he turned around and walked back into the alley. Upton stopped at the fourth house, but didn’t walk up to the door to knock. Watson and Halstead continued their way in to the alley. Upon seeing that he had company, the suspect took one last look at them then started running.

“We’ve been made.” Watson said as she took out her gun and started running as well.

“5021 George, plain clothes officers in pursuit of a possible offender in an alley north of the crime scene. Offender is a middle aged Hispanic guy, wearing blue jeans, black coat and a black hoodie.” Halstead spoke into his radio while he ran after Watson who seemed surprisingly fast.

“5021 Henry, David and Ida joining pursuit.” Upton’s voice ran throughout every radio at the scene as she, Atwater and Ruzek ran into the alley.

Squad 3 was finishing packing up when a swarm of police officers ran past them towards the alley.

“Seems like something is about to go down.” Cruz said as he slammed shut the last side door of the rig.

“Yeah, they’re in pursuit of a possible offender.” Tony added as they all walked towards Chief Boden “Heard on one of their radios that plain clothes officers lead the chase.”

“That’s got to be Intelligence.” Cruz nodded “Oh, and probably those NCIS ladies as well.”

Severide almost stopped in his track, finally realizing that Watson was probably leading the pursuit, being as stubborn as he knew her to be.

A few minutes of radio silence have passed when the otherwise silent neighborhood was disturbed again. Severide counted six shots, coming from at least one or two blocks away. Then finally two more shots. He tensed and turned to a cop who stayed on scene.

“Hey, you know what’s going on?” Severide pressed for information. The officer was about to protest when his radio started crackling then a female voice rang out.

“5021 Henry, 10-1. I repeat 10-1. I need immediate assistance. One officer and the offender are down, gunshot wounds. Roll ambos.”

Without realizing what he was doing, Severide’s feet started moving and before long, he was running towards that alley.

“Lieutenant!” Boden shouted after him but he didn’t stop. It only took him a couple of minutes to turn into the alley and a couple more to rush up to the swarm of police officers a block down.

“Let me through!” he yelled at a young officer who stood in his way. The young officer turned around to ask his supervisor if he could let Severide through, but Kelly did not wait for an answer. He took a step left, went around the officer and only came to a stop when he saw that the two figures on the ground were both male.

“Watson!” he yelled and after hearing his desperate voice Sarah immediately spun towards him.

“Severide?” she seemed surprised to see him there. He rushed up to her and hugged her so tightly she could smell the smoke on his gear.

“Hey, I’m okay.” she whispered into his ear and laid her head onto his shoulder as she wrapped her arms around him. After a minute or so, he pulled away, she kept her arms wrapped around him, never letting him go too far. He reached up to cup her cheeks and kissed her. As he deepened the kiss, Watson moved her arms up to his neck, pulling him closer to her. When they came up for air, Severide held Watson close, his strong arms wrapped around her waist, while her arms never moved from his neck. He looked into her eyes so deeply Watson felt like he was staring into her soul.

“What?” she smiled, blushing. He took a deep breath, never taking his eyes off of her.

“I love you, Sarah.” he smiled and leaned in for another kiss.

 

**_to be continued_ **


	23. Chasing Ghosts

Watson’s senses shut out everything except for the feel of Severide’s lips on hers. He moved his hands to her cheek, pulling her closer to him while Watson kept her arms around his neck. Finally, they broke for air. Severide caressed her cheek, a small smile playing on his lips. Watson bit her lower lip and finally looked up at Severide. Her heart was racing just as fast as the thoughts in her mind. But there was no denying that feeling which slowly grew stronger every day. Without realizing the bit of audience they had, she let herself smile.

“I love you too, Kelly.” She smiled and pulled him in for a quick kiss. He wrapped his arms around her, pressing her to him and she felt so incredibly safe. _Safe_. Something she had not felt for quite a while, ever since Cortez tried to set her on fire.

“I was afraid you got shot… again.” Severide said as he let go of Watson.

“I got lucky. I had cover, Halstead didn’t.” Watson explained as she turned around. Halstead was on the ground, lying on his back, his right hand pressed to his chest. Watson took a couple of steps towards Jay when paramedics Dawson and Brett arrived. Dawson went straight for the offender who was also on the ground a couple feet further. Upton was keeping her hands on the guy who got shot his in his left shoulder.

“He’s losing blood to fast.” She said when Dawson crouched down next to them.

“We need to find a way to stop the bleeding to ready him for transport. He’s already unconscious.”

While Dawson worked her magic on the offender, Brett took a closer look at Halstead.

“How is he?” Watson asked as she crouched down next to Jay.

“Vest caught the bullet.” Brett examined the impact sight “It’s going to leave one hell of a bruise and he might have a couple of cracked ribs as well.”

“If it’s safe for him, I can take him to Med. I probably need a couple of stitches as well.” Watson offered and Brett searched through her go bag.

“Jay, I’ll give you something for the pain, but a doctor has to see you, okay?”

Halstead nodded slowly, which made him wince.

“I'll make sure someone sees him at Med right away.” Sarah nodded, then her and Severide pulled Halstead to his feet.

“Oh crap.” he cursed “Been a while since I’ve got shot.”

“How easy it is to forget the pain that comes with the vest saving your life, right?” Sarah smiled as she helped Jay walk back to his car, Severide following them closely.

“Okay, now give up your keys, detective.” Watson held out her hand in front of him and even though it hurt like hell, Halstead shook his head.

“No way, you’re not driving my car…”

“Okay, sure. We can wait a few more hours till you are up to driving…” Watson smiled “We’ll see if those cracked ribs will actually break and puncture your lungs but sure… don’t let a woman drive your precious car.”

Halstead was about to argue when Severide spoke.

“Give the keys to me, I’ll drive.”

After a moment of hesitation, Halstead gave up his keys.

“Oh really? I’m beginning to regret offering you a ride to Med.” she scoffed as she helped him onto the back seat of his SUV. Severide quickly jogged back to Boden to let the Chief know where he was going.

The ride to Med was relatively silent, with Watson and Severide occasionally glancing at each other at red lights, letting themselves smile, and forgetting their worries until the next green light.

When they arrived at Med, Severide and Watson helped Jay out of his car and walked him to the entrance where Dr. Rhodes was already waiting for them.

“Help me get him to Treatment 4.” Rhodes said then after taking a quick look at Kelly and Sarah, he shook his head “Then you can go and wait in Treatment 3. Both of you will probably need a couple of stitches.”

Watson was just about to argue when Kelly spoke.

“Thank you, Dr. Rhodes.”

After they left Jay with Connor, they walked into Treatment 3.

“How is it that when I’m around you, I always end up getting stitches?” Severide smiled as he took off his turnout coat and draped it over a chair.

“Oh please, don’t tell me you’ve never been injured on the job before you’ve met me!” Sarah laughed, taking off her own coat as well.

“He’d be lying.” Will Halstead’s voice announced his arrival “Did you know, Agent Watson that he got blown up once?”

Sarah’s jaw dropped in shock, looking at Severide.

“He was touch and go for a while.” Halstead shook his head as he pulled on some gloves.

“Some nutjob came into Med with a grenade. I jumped at him to minimize casualties.” Kelly shook his head slowly as he remembered that horrible day.

“Well damn.” Sarah shook her head “I’ve been shot at quite regularly, I was almost set on fire but I think it’s safe to say I have never been blown up. You win this round.” she smiled.

“Didn’t know it was a contest.” Severide smiled and gave her a small kiss before Will started cleaning his wounds.

After Will treated their injuries, he was about to leave when he turned around at the door.

“Oh, I almost forgot! Matt Casey is slowly regaining his consciousness. Dawson is with him right now. You can drop in for a quick visit, if you want to.” with a small smile on his face, Halstead turned around and left.

“That’s good news, right?” Watson smiled as she gathered her coat.

“Yeah, but I doubt he’s completely out of the woods yet. He’s been in a coma for almost two weeks.” Severide sighed.

“He’s probably got a long road of recovery ahead, but at least he’s getting better.” Sarah smiled as she took his hand and gave it a light squeeze.

After gathering their stuff, they walked out of Treatment 3 and headed straight for the elevators to go upstairs to ICU. They walked hand in hand and they only stopped in front of Casey’s room. Gabby was sitting next to him, holding his hand in hers so tightly her knuckles were turning white. She was smiling from ear to ear, tears slowly rolling down on her face. Casey was still in bed, but he was alert and talking to Gabby.

“You go ahead, I’ll wait for you.” Sarah smiled at Severide when Casey noticed them looking at him through the glass wall of his ICU room and waved at them.

“You don’t want to come in?” Kelly looked at her, confused.

“He’s your friend. Go ahead, I’ll grab a coffee in the cafeteria.” She smiled and gave Kelly a small kiss then headed back for the elevators while Severide walked into Casey’s room.

***

Watson walked into Chicago Med’s cafeteria with the intention of buying herself some damn good coffee but when she noticed Sergeant Voight talking to Dr. Halstead, that all went out the window. She walked up to Voight the moment Will excused himself to get back to work.

“Sergeant Voight…”

“Ah, Agent Watson. Trouble seems to follow you these days.” Voight said as he motioned for them to sit down to an empty table.

“I was just wondering if you had any leads so far?” Watson cut straight to the chase.

“Straight into business. I can appreciate that.” Voight let a small smile play through his face.

“So? Have you identified the son of a bitch who tried to blow up half the block?”

“We did. He was already in the system.”

“I see you are not the oversharing type, Sergeant.” Sarah shook her head slowly, thinking through her next words. She needed new information on whatever the hell had happened and was determined to get it one way or the other.

“It’s safe to say it was related to my case, am I right?” Watson tried again and Voight just nodded, not saying a word.

“So the guy was a member of the Latin Kings?” Watson was not giving up however.

“Okay.” Voight sighed, realizing he was not getting out of this conversation so easily as he planned.

“Yeah, the guy is a known player in the Latin Kings, but he is not high up the food chain, so if he survives…” he shook his head.

“He probably knows nothing about their plans.” Watson cut him off.

“He was told where to go and what to do. From what we gathered, he doesn’t even know how to build a bomb.”

“The Internet is a gold mine for that these days, but you need some minimal skill set to pull off remote detonation bombs.” Watson agreed “So we need the people giving the orders.”

“Yes, but it’s not going to be easy and it might take a while. Sure you don’t want to go back to Washington and let us handle the whole nightmare?”

“No.” Watson shook her head “Every victim was Navy so far. And we never hand over one of our own, let alone eight of our own. We can work the case together, but NCIS has the final say in everything.”

“Fine by me, Agent Watson.” Voight said as he stood up “But remember, this is my city and I’ll do everything to protect it.” with that Voight stood up and was ready to say goodbye when Sarah felt Halstead’s car keys in her pocket.

“Sergeant, would you give these to detective Halstead? We brought him into Med in his car.” Sarah explained handing over the keys. Voight just nodded, then they said goodbye and he left. Sarah stood up as well and walked to the queue that had formed in the past couple minutes. She was contemplating on getting a latte when she felt a light tap on her left shoulder and she spun around immediately.

“Woah, hey. It’s just me.” Severide smile apologetically.

“Sorry, I’m just a bit on edge right now.”

“That’s understandable.” Severide said as he pulled her in for a quick but tight hug “But did you get lost on your way down here? You left like 15 minutes ago and you’re still in line for that coffee?” he smiled.

“Very funny.” Sarah smiled “I actually ran into Voight.”

“He gave you his ‘ _this is my city_ ’ speech?”

“Yeah, he did.” Sarah grinned “And he tried to get me to hand over the whole case.”

“I trust you didn’t just hand it over.” Severide said then placed his order and so did Watson.

“Have you met me? I don’t just roll over…”

“I beg to differ, you can roll over just fine.” Severide winked at her and Watson hit his left shoulder playfully.

They walked out to the parking lot, sat down on a bench close to each other and Severide put an arm around Watson.

“I don’t know what the next step is…” Watson sighed.

“What do you mean?” he asked, pulling her even closer to him.

“I mean, it really is going to take a while to figure out who is calling the shots within the Latin Kings. I’m no closer to closing this case than I was before I came here…”

“You know that’s not true!” Severide cut her off.

“Well yeah, I’m a bit closer. I have motive, a pool of possible suspects, but I also lost my partner. At least the son of a bitch who killed Torres is also dead, although I really wish I could have had a few minutes with him, alone.” she shook her head slowly “I think my boss would kill me himself if I went back to Washington without solving the case.”

“Is he that bad?” Severide smiled.

“He’s not bad… he just has very high expectations of his agents.” she smiled and drank her coffee.

“What do you say we get back to 51? I still have half of my shift and I doubt you’d like to go back to my apartment alone.” Severide said, standing up from the bench.

“Oh you are right, I need some company tonight.” Watson smiled and they called a taxi to take them back to Firehouse 51.

**_to be continued_ **

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Things are about to take a deadly turn, so be sure to check back for later chapters!  
> And feel free to leave kudos or comments, I'd love to know what you guys think about Sizzling Chicago! :)


	24. Deal or No Deal

Chapter 24: Deal or No Deal

 

Voight went home after visiting Halstead at Chicago Med. The next morning he drove straight to Intelligence. He nodded to Ruzek, who was already sitting at his desk, working on some paperwork, then Voight continued walking towards the interrogation rooms. Both of them locked their guns away, then stormed into the interrogation room where Hector Morales was held. Halstead and Ruzek had interrogated him before the bombs went off, but since Halstead was a patient at Med, Voight decided to step in.

“So Hector, we’ve got some news for you, my friend.” Voight smiled as he entered the room and sat down in front of Morales.

“Yeah?” Morales suddenly looked a lot more alert than before.

“Yeah.” Voight continued smiling “We’ll add a few more charges to your list.”

“What are you talking about, _hombre_?” Hector tried to get up from the chair but his feet were chained to the chair.

“Let me tell you your charges, amigo.” Ruzek smiled “Possession of heroin, murder of a law enforcement officer, felony murder, accessory to two counts of using a weapon of mass destruction.”

“Those combined, give you a couple of life sentences. You’ll never see the light of day, Hector.” Voight looked at Ruzek then back at Hector, still smiling.

“Maybe we can drop the two counts of using a weapon of mass destruction if you cooperate with us, Hector.” Ruzek said sitting down next to Voight.

“Maybe if you give us something useful, that gun will also disappear along the felony murder charge.” Voight continued.

“So, the only thing you can’t shake is the possession charges, but Hector, that’s maximum a year of prison and a fine of a couple hundred dollars. A top dog like you can buy themselves a good lawyer and all that’s left is a small fine to pay and you are free to roam the streets again.” Ruzek explained.

“I’m no _soplón_. I talk, I’m dead.” Hector shook his head and no matter how confident he wanted to seem, his body language betrayed him. Hunched shoulders, widened eyes, trembling hands, all clear signs of fear.

“Dude, no one knows the charges against you, except for you. If you get out on a tiny possession charge, nobody is the wiser that you talked.” Ruzek answered raising one eyebrow slightly. Hector shook his head again and again, he was thinking. He pinched the bridge of his nose then looked straight at Voight, leaning forward, his hands in a fist.

“If I talk, I’m getting out of here.” it was more a statement than a question.

“I told you Hector, if you talk, you will be out of here real soon.” Voight nodded.

“No, _hombre_. Out of the city, hell out of this state.” Hector continued.

“You want witness protection?” Ruzek laughed.

“You want information? That’s my price.” Hector said, raising one eyebrow, smiling as he leaned back in his chair.

“Michigan sounds good, Hector?” Voight asked, smiling.

“Hell no. I need something that’s not the Midwest and where I’m far away from Mexico.” Hector shook his head.

“So you want some place where the Latin Kings can’t get to you, right?” Ruzek asked and Hector only nodded.

“Connecticut is your last option, Hector.” Voight offered.

“Deal.” Hector nodded then leaned forward “What do you want to know?”

“What do you know about the bombs?” Ruzek asked, opening his notebook.

“Let’s get some things straight first.” Hector started “Yes, I was at the warehouse, yes, my gun was used but I never shot anybody. Now, I knew about the bombs, but I only heard a couple of guys talk before you grabbed me.”

“Fair warning, Hector.” Voight shook his head slowly “If you can’t offer us valuable information, those charges are not going away.”

“Okay, okay…” Hector took a deep breath then continued “I only heard the target and that it was supposed to be lethal, so that the _mujer_ would stop coming after us.”

“ _Mujer_? Who was the target, Hector?” Ruzek looked up from his notes.

“I only heard her last name. Watson.” Hector nodded slowly.

“So the bombs were supposed to take out Agent Watson and her only?” Voight asked.

“Well, the first one was meant for her, the second was obviously collateral damage.” Ruzek answered instead of Hector who just nodded.

“ _Honestamente_ , the Kings will keep going after her with or without me.” Hector explained “With that Watson out of the picture, no one will be there to stop the drugs coming in and we are back in business.”

“Write this down for me, will you, Hector? So we can get that deal going for you.” Voight gave him a pad and a pen then him and Ruzek walked out of the room and stepped into the next room where they could still keep an eye on Morales. Upton was already waiting for them.

“We are really giving the guy that deal?” Hailey asked as the guys entered.

“No way, he will rot in prison, right Sarge?” Ruzek smiled, looking at Voight.

“It’s really up to the DA as to what deal Morales will get but I really doubt they would just let him go.” Voight shook his head slowly “But we still got the information we wanted. We need to bring in Watson and get a plan going.”

“We need to lure out the top dogs.” Ruzek agreed “If we take down the head…”

“Another head will still pop up.” Upton cut him off.

“But that head will be busy dealing with what’s going on inside the Latin Kings, laying low until the heat dies down around them.” Voight explained “That’s the best we can do for now.”

***

It was well past 8am when Watson and Severide finally got home. The rest of his shift was eventful, to say the least. Watson had been at 51 alone for the most part of the night, but she still felt safe there. After discarding the heavy winter wear she had on to fight the Chicago cold she walked to the apartment’s window which was facing the street where it all went down the day before. City workers were still doing their best to clean up after the bombing and half the street was still closed down with the all too familiar yellow police tape.

“What’s on your mind?” Severide asked as he stepped behind her, wrapping his arms around her waist and resting his chin on her shoulder.

“Yesterday.” she sighed and eased into his hug.

“You’ll get whoever is behind it.” she could feel his smile against her neck as he planted a soft kiss on it.

“You know…” Watson started as she turned around in his arms “There’s no one I’d rather go through this crazy time with than you.” she smiled and brushed her lips against Severide’s who instantly captured it with a kiss. He tilted her chin and kissed her jaw then her neck slowly. Watson’s fingers curled around his shirt, tugging him closer. Severide took a breath to study her face with a warm smile. She could feel her heart beating loudly in her chest. Severide kissed her again and she found it difficult to catch her breath when he pulled away. He groaned quietly as he pressed her up against the wall next to the window. Severide grabbed her waist, grinding his hips against hers as she locked her arms around his neck and their lips locked hungrily. Finally, they broke for air. Suddenly, with a mischievous smile playing on her lips, she took a step to the side and turned him around. This time, it was his turn to be pressed up against the wall. She pulled his shirt over his head and ran her hand down his broad chest. His chiseled abs contracted slightly at her touch. Her eyes trailed over his body suggestively and the corner of his mouth quirked.

“You like what you see?” his voice was deeper than usual and his eyes strikingly blue.

“I might have to arrest you for being too good looking.” she smiled and slid her hands over his hips, unfastened his pants, pulling them down with a coy smile playing on her lips. Watson bit her lower lip and stared into his eyes as she slowly removed the few layers of clothing she had on.

“Bending the law, Agent Watson?” he smiled, his eyes sparkling with desire “Not that I’m complaining…”

Instead of answering him, she pulled Severide in for another passionate kiss and started slowly to walk them towards his bedroom. Once they got in, she pushed him onto the bed and straddled him. His blue eyes were so blue she got lost in them for a second, which caused her to lose focus. Severide saw that, so he locked his arms around Watson and flipped her onto her back. She gasped as he pinned her wrists to the bed and he leaned down to whisper in her ear.

“Can you give up control, just once?” he asked, planting a small kiss behind her ear. Watson tightened her thighs around his hips and rolled, reversing the position again. She planted her hands beside his head and gently grinded against him.

“Not really. But that doesn’t mean you can’t take my breath away.”

Severide leaned forward, kissing her hard. When he pulled away, he looked at her with a smirk on his face.

“Did that do the trick?” he smiled.

“I’m still talking, aren’t I?” she winked and it took all his strength but he flipped her over again, this time she didn’t resist as much. He slid down her body, torturing her with feather-light kisses until his mouth arrived exactly where she wanted it. He used his hands and his mouth to make her tingle all over, until she could barely see straight. Gasping, she tangled her hands in his hair. Intense sensations thundered through her body and she finally allowed herself to crumble, forgetting all about control. Watson moaned loudly as she arched her back.

Severide moved back up, kissing her passionately then nibbling at her ear, sending shivers all over her body. Before he could bask in his victory of rendering her speechless, Watson flipped them back again with ease, straddling him, panting heavily.

“Looks like I did my job.” he smirked, pulling Watson down for another kiss. He pulled her hips towards him and their bodies began to move in perfect rhythm, rocking gently at first then faster. They moved together faster and faster and soon Sarah was swept away in waves of ecstasy again. She dug her nails into the sheets beneath them, fighting back a scream. Severide pulled her tightly against his chest, his kisses matching the passion in the air. After a few more rock of his hips, Severide muffled a groan against her shoulder, getting lost in his own wave of ecstasy.

Several blissful moments later, Sarah lay in Kelly’s arms. He traced small circles on her skin with one hand. He brushed a strand of hair off of her forehead and kissed the spot where it had been.

“Sometimes, this still feels like it’s all a dream.” she sighed, moving closer to him and he hugged her, keeping her close to him. She lay her head onto his chest, listening to his quick heartbeat normalizing.

“Then I don’t want to wake up.” he smiled, kissing the top of her head.

“Then let’s not.” she smiled and settled against him for some sleep.

***

Back in Washington D.C. Agents Gibbs, McGee and Bishop were on their way back to headquarters after raiding a known meeting place for the N.M.N.W.. Their intention was one thing only: to avenge Nick Torres’ death. When the news of Nick’s death hit, the life had stopped in the office for a while. Bishop had stayed at home for a day and she had seemed inconsolable at first, but slowly her heartbreak and pain turned into the maddening feeling of need for revenge. Torres had been her partner before Watson came to D.C.. They had only lost a couple of colleagues before, Ziva David, Kate Todd, both of the long gone but never forgotten.

After the short grieving period, the team had been determined to find anything related to the No More Navy Warfare group that could help Watson’s case in Chicago. And after having heard about the bombing that nearly killed Watson and Sloane Gibbs gave the order to raid the possible meeting place of the N.M.N.W.. The raid was successful, the grabbed two guys who were actively planning on torching another Naval officer’s home.

Gibbs had been sitting in interrogation room 1 with one of the suspects for a while before Abby called him out. It was a known rule not to interrupt Gibbs in interrogations unless it was an emergency.

“I checked their phone records. There is one burner number in both phones that pinged in a very windy city in the past couple of months.” Abby explained, smiling.

“Chicago.” was all Gibbs said “Loop Watson in.” then he went back into the interrogation room.

Abby ran back down to her lab and pulled up Skype on her computer and dialed Sarah. After a couple of rings Sarah’s sleepy face popped up on the screen.

“Morning, Sarah.” Abby smiled cheerfully.

“Morning, Abbs.” Sarah said, suppressing a yawn.

“Did I wake you up?” Abby asked while typing on her computer.

“Abbs, could you tell me why did you call?” Watson urged her.

“We’ve got two bad guys from N.M.N.W. in interrogation and I analyzed their phones. There is one number to a burner phone in both phones that pinged in that windy city you are in.” Abby explained, still typing away furiously on her keyboard.

“Who is it?” a man’s sleepy voice rang into the conversation.

“I didn’t realize you were not alone.” Abby said with a big grin on her face when Severide’s sleepy face popped up behind Sarah.

“It’s work, just go back to sleep.” Watson answered Kelly then focused back on Abby “Were you able to trace the burner?”

“It’s turned off and I can’t get it back online. But I’ll send you the number and the local office can help you with the trace as well.”

“I’ve got a better idea.” Watson nodded “Just send me the number Abbs, I’ll take care of it.”

With that they said goodbye and shortly after Watson received the text from Abby.

“Do you always work this early?” Severide’s sleepy voice rang out again.

“It’s past 10am, it’s not exactly early.” she smiled, gave him a quick kiss then settled back next to him to sleep.

Her plan was to march into CPD’s Intelligence unit the first thing on Monday morning and demand from Voight to trace that number for her. Little did she know the consequences that would follow…

****

**_to be continued_ **

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you guys enjoyed this chapter! Please let me know what you think! :)


	25. Dire Consequences

Monday morning arrived rather quickly, the cold and snowy weather persisting over Chicago. Sarah though reluctantly, but pulled on another layer of clothing, in hopes of not freezing to death on her short trip to Intelligence.

“You look like you’re heading straight into Siberia.” Severide smiled at her from behind the kitchen counter. He was off duty for the day, he was in his pj-s, sipping away at his coffee.

“I can’t help it if it feels like Siberia out there.” Watson laughed then walked back to him for a quick kiss. Then she headed straight to district 21 in an uber. The aftermath of Saturday’s bombing had been cleaned up, but Watson knew all too well: the road was still scorched black underneath all the snow that had fallen since. Once Watson explained to desk sergeant Trudy Platt why she came to the 21st, she was let upstairs. As soon as she walked up the stairs, Voight came out of his office.

“Good morning, Agent Watson.” Voight greeted her, announcing her arrival to his team.

“Good morning.” Watson took a couple of steps forward “I need your help, Sergeant.”

To Watson, who always solved any and every problem that life threw at her on her own, this was one of the hardest things to do, but she knew she had to if she wanted to put an end to this nightmare.

“How can I help you, Agent?” Voight asked with a rather sarcastic undertone.

“I suppose you could trace a local burner for me, right?” Watson asked, holding up a piece of paper onto which she had written down the number she got from Abby.

“I suppose we could help you with that.” Voight nodded then motioned for Antonio to take the slip of paper and start the trace.

“Who is it we are looking for?” Burgess stood next to Antonio, watching his screen.

“My team back in DC captured two members of No More Navy Warfare. There was only one common number in both their phones.” Watson explained “Calls and texts were traced here to Chicago, but the phone was off during the weekend.”

“And you were hoping the gangbanger would get straight back into business on Monday.” Ruzek smiled then looked at Voight with a questioning look.

“We’ve also got something to share with you, Agent Watson.” Voight talked and Watson’s interest reached an all new height.

“I’m all ears, Sergeant.” Watson nodded as she sat onto the corner of the nearest desk.

“Hector Moralees is in our custody.” Voight started then kept a small pause “We offered him a deal if he can give us valuable information on the Latin Kings.”

“Well, is he?” Watson asked “IS he giving you actionable intel?”

“We’re chasing down a couple of names he gave us, but so far, everything looks legit.” Ruzek nodded, explaining the situation instead of Voight, who didn’t say a word, but shot him quite a tell-tale look.

“Good, I want to see these sons of bitches burn.” Watson spoke out loud before she could control her emotions.

“How are we with that trace, Antonio?” Voight spoke, changing the topic.

“Bingo.” Dawson said after a short, few seconds long silence “It’s pinging right now.”

“Where?” Watson’s voice had a sense of urgency that everyone noticed.

“It’s moving, a second ago it was at Wicker park, now it’s at Humboldt park.”

Ruzek pulled up a map of Chicago on his screen and pulled up the two locations.

“Where is it now?” Ruzek asked, so he could pinpoint the movement.

“Near Oak park.” Burgess read the red dot’s new location.

“He’s on West North Avenue, he’s moving out of the city.” Ruzek said, jumping up from his seat, reaching for his coat.

“Let’s roll!” Voight nodded then stayed behind with Watson for a quick talk.

20 minutes later they were all just a few cars behind of the phone’s owner. They were heading together with the traffic, trying to blend in, when suddenly a blue Ford SUV made a quick U-turn and started speeding in the opposite direction.

“Signal turned too.” Dawson talked into his radio so every Intelligence unit car followed. Watson sat next to Ruzek, cursing him every now and then for not going any faster.

“This is turning into a chase.” Ruzek focused on the road ahead “How good are you with that gun of yours?”

“Good enough. Don’t worry about me hitting him, worry about you losing him.” Watson slammed her hand on the dashboard.

“Good God…” Ruzek shook his head then concentrated on the road. He turned on his blue lights and siren and put the pedal to the metal, bringing his own car right next to the Ford on its left side. Sarah pulled out her NCIS badge and her gun, motioning for the driver to slow down and pull over. The middle-aged Latino driver ignored her, moreover, he pulled out his own gun and shot straight at Watson. The bullet shuttered his car’s window and flew past Ruzek’s car, never hitting its intended target.

“Fuck!” Ruzek hit the brake to avoid the bullets still flying in their direction, then started edging closer to the Ford again. Voight came from the right side of the suspect’s car. They were trying to steer the car into a road with less traffic. The driver sped up, trying his best to evade the cops.

“We’ve got to steer him out of rush hour traffic!” Watson argued and Ruzek was about to speed up to get in front of the Ford to try and force him to slow down when the driver yanked the wheel to the left, crashing into Ruzek’s car, pushing it into oncoming traffic. Meanwhile he kept shooting at Ruzek’s car, bullets flying everywhere. Although Ruzek tried to avoid any collisions, in the heavy oncoming traffic it was impossible. A minute later Ruzek’s car crashed into an SUV heading towards them.

“Antonio, stay on the Ford.” Voight spoke into his radio then slowed to a halt and drove back to the crash scene. Ruzek crawled out from the driver’s seat, blood dripping from a head wound.

“Adam?” Voight yelled as he practically jumped out of his SUV. It took almost all of Adam’s strength to get up from the ground.

“I’m alive, Sarge.” was all he could say. His vision was slightly blurry and the world seemed to spin around him, making him extremely dizzy which in turn made it hard for him to stay on his feet.

Watson on the other hand was unconscious and stuck in her seat. Voight tried his best to pry open the door but it wouldn’t budge.

“We’ve got a police involved car crash, officers down. Roll me CFD and at least two ambos.” Voight spoke into his radio.

“How is she?” Ruzek asked as he tried to keep himself standing.

“Unconscious, bleeding and stuck.” Voight’s short answer came as he walked over to the SUV that crashed into Ruzek’s car. The driver was just realizing what had happened and tried to get out of his car.

“I wouldn’t do that, pal.” Voight talked to him “You might have a spinal injury. Stay put, an ambulance is on its way.” Voight then walked back to his own car and pulled out the fire extinguisher from his trunk and brought it back to the car wreck.

CFD arrived a couple minutes later and pulled Watson out of the car and placed her onto a stretcher. She was still unconscious, she had a nasty head wound that was bleeding slowly but steadily and bullet hit her in her right shoulder.

“How is she?” Voight asked the paramedic as they were about to load Watson into the ambo.

“She’s still unconscious, she lost a significant amount of blood but she has a steady pulse and is breathing. We’ll take her to Med.” The woman explained as they loaded Watson into the ambulance “She’ll probably need surgery for the bullet as we couldn’t find an exit wound and she probably has a nasty concussion as well.” Was the last things she explained before hopping into the front seat, turning on the sirens and driving away.

“We should give him a call.” Ruzek said as Voight walked up to him. Adam was being examined by another ambulance. Voight just looked at him, raising one eyebrow, signaling Adam to continue talking.

“I mean Severide, Sarge. Kelly Severide?” Adam spoke again and Voight only nodded. He pulled out his phone and dialed Severide.

“Severide.” Kelly answered the phone rather quickly.

“Lieutenant Severide, this is Sergeant Hank Voight.” Hank spoke and held a small pause “Agent Watson had been in a car crash…”

“Is she okay?” Kelly interrupted him.

“She was taken to Med but it was pretty serious.” Voight explained.

“I’m heading to Med right now.” he heard the urgency in Kelly’s voice “Can you tell me what happened?”

“We were chasing a suspect, that’s all I can say at the moment.” Voight always kept his answers short.

“Thanks for calling me.” with that Kelly ended the call and did his best to get to Chicago Med as soon as possible.

***

It only took Kelly half an hour to get to Chicago Med even in the morning rush, he knew all the back roads where he could avoid traffic jams. He busted through the front door and ran straight into the ED against the front desk nurse’s yelling. He came face to face with Maggie.

“Where is she? Where is Sarah Watson?” Severide demanded answers immediately.

“Agent Watson is in surgery with Dr. Rhodes.” Maggie said as she led him into an empty room and closed the door behind them.

“What can you tell me, Maggie?” Severide was on the verge of tears, ready to hit something, anything that he could.

“I saw her briefly when they brought her in.” Maggie started “She was unconscious, she lost a lot of blood and had a gunshot wound on her right shoulder.” She typed in Sarah’s name onto the laptop in the room and pulled up her chart.

“That’s all?” Severide sat down onto the nearest chair. Maggie clicked and typed a few before speaking again.

“All I can tell you is that Dr. Rhodes truly is one of the best surgeons not just at Med but in Chicago as well. He’ll do his best.”

“He better.” Severide said slamming his fist onto the table.

“Kelly…” she closed the laptop and sat down opposite him “I know waiting is always the hardest part. But you have to stay strong, you have to stay strong for her.”

Kelly just shook his head, wiping away a single tear that escaped his eyes.

“You can stay here, I’ll come find you when the surgery is over.” Maggie smiled at him and squeezed his shoulder softly.

Watson had been in surgery for almost an hour when Severide finally had enough and walked out into the waiting room. To his surprise, the rest of Firehouse 51 was waiting for him there.

“You didn’t have to come.” Severide shook his head slowly.

“When one of us is hurting, each of us are hurting.” Boden spoke softly, giving Severide a quick hug.

“How is she?” Cruz asked.

“I… I don’t know.” Severide said, finally looking at them “She’s been in surgery for over an hour now.”

“Is it serious?” Brett asked, stepping out from behind the others.

“From what I could gather, yeah, it is.”

Before they could continue talking, Boden motioned for Kelly to turn around. Kelly spun around quickly to see Maggie and Dr. Rhodes coming out to meet him.

“Is she okay? Where is she? I want to see her!” Severide started for them, eager for answers.

“Slow down, Kelly.” Maggie spoke first.

“There had been some complications during the surgery.” Rhodes started. It was never easy for any of them to break such news, especially to friends.

“No…” Severide shook his head.

“I’m sorry, Severide.” Rhodes continued “She died on the table.”

Kelly took a step back, shaking his head.

“No… no, no, no.” he was having a hard time controlling his emotions “I want to see her.”

“You can’t, Kelly... The hospital has to do an autopsy first.” Maggie spoke before Rhodes could.

“Autopsy…” Severide couldn’t believe this was happening to him, again.

“I’m so sorry, Kelly.” Maggie stepped closer, hugging him “I’m sorry, but… she’s gone.”

****

**_to be continued_ **

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Things took an interesting turn. Stay tuned for the aftermath!  
> Be sure to let me know what you think in the comments! :)


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